Today’s Gospel (Mark 7:14-23) reveals a wisdom that echoes what the Queen of Sheba recognized and admired in Solomon (1 Kings 10:1-10). Jesus points us toward a deeper, practical insight: the common-sense wisdom that not what enters from outside through food or drink can defile, but what emerges from within through thoughts that shape our actions.
Because some individuals could misrepresent those words to their doom, I must warn that the statement is not an invitation to drink your way to drunkenness or eat until your stomach bursts. That we are not defiled by what we eat or drink is a simple truth that guides and facilitates self-examination and nurtures spiritual maturity. The psalmist adds to it that, “The mouth of the just murmurs wisdom, and his tongue utters what is right. The law of his God is in his heart, and his steps do not falter” (Psalm 37:30-31).
The Church calls us to walk in this same path, allowing our minds and hearts, formed by God’s law, to guide our choices toward what glorifies God and builds us up, rather than toward what leads to defilement.
