15 February 2027 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malankara Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.” Mark 7:15
The second week of the Great Fast opens with a Gospel that seems, at first hearing, to argue against fasting. Jesus calls the crowd and says: “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.” Mark even adds his own comment: “Thus he declared all foods clean.” Older members of many St Thomas Christian families remember a Great Fast kept without meat, fish, eggs or milk, and some households still keep it so; in earlier generations many took only one full meal a day. Why, then, do we give up food that Jesus himself called clean? Not because the fish curry is unclean. We fast because the stomach is a good teacher of the heart. The one who learns to say no to a plate learns, little by little, to say no to the anger, the envy and the greed that come out of the heart. The Church fasts from clean things in order to become clean within.
Jesus names what really defiles. “For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” It is an uncomfortable list, and it is honest. Nobody needs to be taught envy or pride; they grow in the heart like weeds in a compound left alone for one monsoon. The wise of Israel said: “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” A fast that watches the kitchen but not the heart has guarded the wrong door. That is why many of our elders spoke of fasting with the tongue too: no gossip, no cursing, no sharp word at the dinner table, for as long as the fast lasts.
Paul's letter to Titus gives the other half of the answer. We cannot clean the heart by our own scrubbing. Paul describes believers as they once were, “foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy.” “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.” The heart is washed in baptism and renewed by the Spirit poured out “richly”. Fasting does not buy this grace; it makes room for it. So Paul can ask for a very ordinary holiness, the kind that shows in a neighbourhood: “to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show every courtesy to everyone.” This week, let the fast reach the heart, and let the heart reach the street.
Theme: “there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”
Why we fast from clean food, what really defiles, and the mercy that washes the heart.
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10
“there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.” Mark 7:15
Apply: Tell God in prayer today what your fast is meant to change in your heart.
“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” Proverbs 4:23
“For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come” Mark 7:21
Apply: Make a short examination of conscience each night this week.
“A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26
“he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.” Titus 3:5
Apply: Speak evil of no one for the rest of this week.
We fast from clean things so that the heart may become clean.
What we cannot scrub away, God washes by his mercy and renews by his Spirit.
Take-home resolution: Keep a fast of the tongue this week: no slander, no gossip, no harsh word at home.
Dear friends, today Jesus says something surprising in the middle of our fast: nothing outside a person that goes in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile (Mark 7:15). Mark tells us that in this way Jesus declared all foods clean.
So why do we still give up fish and meat? Not because they are unclean. We give up good things so that our hearts learn to say no. The stomach becomes a teacher of the heart.
Jesus then names what really makes us unclean: evil intentions, theft, deceit, envy, slander, pride (Mark 7:21–22). These come from within. A fast that guards the kitchen but not the heart has guarded the wrong door.
And we cannot clean our hearts by ourselves. Saint Paul says that God saved us not because of our works but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). Let us ask him this week to keep our tongues gentle, to speak evil of no one, and to show every courtesy to everyone. Amen.
Children, Jesus says that what makes us bad is not the food we eat but the unkind things that come out of our hearts and mouths. This week, can you fast from one unkind word?
Lord Jesus Christ, you see the heart and you know what comes out of it. Let our fasting from food become a fasting from envy, slander and pride. By the water of rebirth you have washed us; pour out your Spirit on us richly again, so that our words may be gentle and our hearts clean. Glory to you, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever. Amen.
The second week of the Great Fast opens with the question of what really makes a person clean. Titus recalls what Christians once were and what God's mercy did for them, “through the water of rebirth”. In Mark, Jesus teaches that defilement comes “from the human heart”, and not from the plate. Together they explain why we fast: food cannot stain us, but a heart washed by God can learn to live differently. The key words are mercy, washing and within.
Setting.
Titus was a Gentile co-worker of Paul (Galatians 2:3), and this letter places him on the island of Crete, where he is to put the young churches in order (1:5). With 1 and 2 Timothy it forms the group called the Pastoral Letters. The letter bears Paul's name. Many scholars think a disciple wrote it in his name after his death, while others hold that Paul wrote it through a secretary. The Church receives it as inspired Scripture in either case. The Christians it addresses are a small group living among neighbours who watch how they behave.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show every courtesy to everyone.” (3:2)
“No one” stands at one end of this verse and “everyone” at the other. Christian manners are not kept for fellow Christians.
“For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray,” (3:3)
The writer counts himself in. Nobody can despise a neighbour after honestly remembering his own past.
“he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.” (3:5)
This is the heart of the passage. Our fast does not buy God's mercy; the mercy came first and it reached us at the font.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism takes this verse as one of the names of Baptism: it is the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit, because it signifies and brings about birth of water and the Spirit (CCC 1215). Good works are not set aside, since v. 1 asks for them and v. 8 returns to them. They grow from grace and do not earn the first grace (CCC 2010).
Setting.
Pharisees and scribes have asked why Jesus' disciples eat with unwashed hands (7:1–5). The purity rules were a holy thing for observant Jews, a way of living every day as a people set apart for God. Jesus has answered sharply about human custom set above God's command (7:6–13). Now he turns to the crowd and goes to the root of the matter. Mark explains Jewish customs for his readers (7:3–4), so he is probably writing for many who were Gentiles, to whom this question of food mattered greatly.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.” (7:15)
Jesus does not despise the Law, which itself asks for a clean heart (Psalm 51:10). He names what the Law's outward signs were always pointing to.
“(Thus he declared all foods clean.)” (7:19)
This is Mark's own comment. The early Church needed time to work out its meaning for table fellowship between Jewish and Gentile believers (Acts 10:15; Acts 15; Galatians 2:11–14).
“For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come:” (7:21)
Evil intentions come first and the deeds follow. In Greek, six plural words (fornication to wickedness) are followed by six singular ones (deceit to folly).
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches that Jesus here perfects the dietary law by revealing its teaching purpose (CCC 582). It cites the same sayings to show that the root of sin lies in the heart (CCC 1853), and that the heart is the seat of moral personality (CCC 2517). Respect for the people of the Law belongs to any honest reading of this passage (CCC 839; Nostra Aetate 4).
If all foods are clean, why do we abstain in the Great Fast?
We do not abstain because meat is unclean. Fasting is a chosen discipline: it teaches the body to say no, makes room for prayer, and gives us something to share with the poor. It is one of the ways interior penance is expressed (CCC 1434, 1438).