It would be easy for Christians to say that, however little we may have understood Jesus’s other teachings, at least we seem to have embraced Jesus’s teaching that all foods are clean, since it is not food that defiles (cf. Mark 7:1-23). While it is true that Christians do not have scruples about eating many foods that were previously forbidden, perhaps a “been there, done that, got the t-shirt” attitude with regards to this scripture impedes us from seeing some deeper lessons that it bears for us today.
At some level, anyway, it still remains true for Christians that “you are what you eat,” at least if we are to believe St. Augustine’s eucharistic exhortation to “become what you receive: the body of Christ.”
When it comes to our life before God, Jesus adds, “Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile” (Mark 7:15). Yes, we are affected by things that come from the outside: not only food, but most especially experiences and interactions. When we are hurt by others, we are more likely to hurt others. From the standpoint of our spiritual health, however, it is the action of hurting, rather than that of being hurt, that defiles us, that truly aggravates our spiritual sickness. But since we all have the effects of the original spiritual sickness that is original sin, we all have the inclination to respond to evil with evil. And this is the reality that Jesus points to as being what defiles us. The good news is that, with the help of God’s grace, we can hand over our brokenness to God and ask him not only to help us resist these defiling tendencies (which only help in an illusory way), but also ask Christ to heal and defend us so that we might no longer respond to evil with evil, but rather with a plea for that healing and life that comes through God’s grace.