Deut 4:1-2, 6-8 Ps 14; Jas 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27; Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

COMMENT

The Wisdom to Be Cultivated and Witnessed Among Peoples

After the meditations on the Bread of Life Sermon in the Gospel of John, this Sunday we return to following the path of Jesus according to the accounts of the evangelist Mark, as provided for the Sundays of the liturgical year B. Today’s Gospel presents us with the controversy between the Master of Nazareth and His usual adversaries, the Pharisees and scribes, regarding the practices of purity to be observed according to their “tradition of the ancients.” Jesus took the opportunity to teach with authority the essentials of God’s Law. Here it is not so much a question of individual and minute cases (to be observed), but rather of the ways that God offers to His People as a gift to be safeguarded and followed in order to be “wise and intelligent” before the people (cf. Deut 1:1-8; first reading). Let us delve into the details of the Gospel story to learn from Jesus the true wisdom to cultivate and bear witness to among peoples.

1. Beyond a dispute on “pure-impure.” The wisdom perspective in the Gospel story

It is essential to underline from the beginning the general wisdom perspective that the evangelist Mark offers us in relation to the dispute about what is pure and impure. This conflict, caused by the criticism of the Pharisees and scribes towards Jesus’ disciples who “ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands,” will find its culmination in Jesus’ indication of the true impurity sources. In his teaching to the crowd, Jesus begins with the invitation to two wise actions: listening and understanding (Mk 7:14). Later, he rebukes the disciples for their inability to understand (Mk 7:18). Furthermore, in the explanation that Jesus offers on what is truly impure, foolishness appears at the end of the list of the twelve evil intentions that come from the heart of man and defile him (cf. Mk 7:21-23). The repetition of these wisdom terms, in particular the explicit teaching regarding foolishness among impure things, make Jesus a true master of wisdom, which proves, in the context of controversies, to be different from that “wisdom” propagated by Pharisees and scribes, i.e. by human masters.

This clarification of perspective helps us to better grasp the person of Jesus as the Sage of God and, consequently, to better understand the teaching that He conveys. Furthermore, it should be remembered that our evangelical episode (Mk 7:1-23) takes place a short distance from the event in the synagogue of Nazareth, where the rhetorical question on the origin of Jesus’ wisdom rang out (cf. Mk 6:2). After being rejected by the inhabitants of his homeland, Jesus continued to show himself, in today’s episode, as the divine Wisdom that teaches the essentials of the divine Law. The question he asks us, his listeners, will be precisely this: are we willing, even today, to become increasingly wiser every day with Him, by obediently listening to His Words? Or do we rather prefer to remain like the Pharisees – or even like some early Christians of legalistic mindset – those of “do not touch” and “do not eat”, mentioned by the apostle Paul (cf. Col 2:20-23), people caught up in interminable human disputes about what is lawful or not lawful in religion? Ultimately, Christians, disciples of Christ, are called to announce and transmit to others, first of all, not the law of God, but the God of the law; not the law of Christ, but the Christ of the law.

2. A very picturesque and bold illustration of truly “impure” things

The Wisdom perspective is necessary to have a correct view on the questions of purity and impurity according to God. In fact, the key statement of Jesus in Mk 7:15, around which the entire explanation that follows is built, presents itself as a wisdom saying in the form of an antithesis, proclaiming the central thesis of the discourse: “Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.” This phrase shifts the attention, to resolve the pure-impure question, from the observance of the Mosaic precepts to a sort of “theology of creation”, that is, to a theological-moral thought that is based on the “natural” law of the created world, observable by common human reason.

This is an approach specific to biblical-Jewish wisdom and that of other peoples. Furthermore, in addition to representing an illustration of reasoning based on creation theology, Jesus’ explanation also contains an ironic and humorous element, characteristic of the wise men of Israel, as is later highlighted by Him with a truly colorful and bold observation for a teacher of the people (so much so that the phrase is omitted in the reading of the mass): “Do you not realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters not the heart but the stomach and passes out into the latrine?” (Mk 7:18b-19a). The humor and insight of Jesus the Sage are obvious and do not require too many comments. A “raw” truth of the natural physical world is highlighted to clarify a moral and religious problem! The immediacy and originality of the image seem to confirm the authenticity of Jesus’ words, or at least the antiquity of the tradition of the phrase, rather than contradict it, since precisely in this lies the convincing power of Jesus’ argumentation.

We need to focus here on the mention of the heart in contrast with the belly. Besides the presence here of a particular interest that the wise men of Israel have for the organs of the human body and their moral “function”, Jesus’ vision of the heart’s fundamental role appears in perfect harmony with that of the biblical wisdom tradition and generally with biblical-Jewish anthropology. The heart represents the center of interiority and above all the seat not so much of feelings or emotions but of intellect and will. We can then say that biblical man thinks with his heart (unlike the Greco-Roman man thinks with his mind!). Therefore, as Jesus pointed out, evil thoughts and then evil actions can proceed from the heart (cf. v.20). Furthermore, already in the biblical-Jewish tradition the heart is considered as the seat of virtues and vices as well as the seat of religiosity in general. The wise men of Israel consequently speak of the lack or absence of the heart as the origin of ignorance (cf. Prov 10:13), of senselessness (cf. Prov 7:7; 9:4; 17:18), and immoral actions such as adultery (cf. Prov 6:32). Hence, Jesus’ analyzed teaching develops Israel’s traditional wisdom sentences and represents (“actualizes”) them in the context of his messianic mission and with divine insight and personal authority.

3. The surprising denunciation of foolishness as the “supreme” source of impurity

Thus, Jesus the Sage of God concludes his teaching on the pure-impure with the denunciation of the twelve true impurity sources about which his disciples will have to be on guard. Six transgressions are enumerated first (with the original Greek terms in the plural) and then six vices (with the original Greek terms in the singular). This list culminates the entire debate. Without going too much into the various exegetical details, for which we refer to the biblical commentaries, it should be underlined that our list of vices and sins in Mk 7:21-23 also finds an echo in Mt 15:18-20 and reflects the custom of moral teachings in the biblical-Jewish tradition and elsewhere. Such form was also found in the early Christian tradition, as seen in the New Testament letters (cf. Rom 1:29-31; Gal 5:19-21; Eph 5:3-5) and in the later apostolic Writings. Concretely, the Markan list in question has its most important parallels in Prov 6:16-19 and Wis 14:25-26, as well as in a dialogue in the Testament of Job 38:1-5.

This general wisdom setting leads naturally, so to speak, to the mention of foolishness at the conclusion of Jesus’ teaching on that occasion. In the context of the list of vices and sins, that is, of moral evils, foolishness refers to an attitude concerning above all the religious moral level. Moreover, given its position at the end of the list, the sacred author seemingly wanted to represent foolishness not as just one among various equal vices and sins, but rather the compendium and also the origin of all the mentioned wickedness. In other words, it is the negative foundation from which all bad actions, words and thoughts derive. What is taught here from the mouth of Jesus is perfectly in tune with biblical-Jewish wisdom, so much so that foolishness (rendered in the Greek Bible LXX with the Greek term afrosyne just like in Mk 7:23) occurs frequently in the denunciations by biblical-Jewish teachers against evil conduct and attitudes (cf., for example, Prov 5:23; 14:3,16; 24:9; Ps 14:1; 53:2; Wis 10: 8; 12:23; Sir 47:20,23). As the French biblical scholar S. Légasse noted, “it is the ‘madness’ of the man devoid of moral judgment and a line of conduct, which inevitably leads him to all sorts of recklessness.” Foolishness is the “supreme” impurity that proceeds from within and defiles man. Jesus appears then as the divine master who authoritatively indicates the wisdom in observing true purity before God.

Therefore, even today, we, his disciples, who listen to these words of Jesus, are called to learn from our Master and Lord His wise vision of everything in our life with God, including of the divine precepts, which must be fulfilled with and in the Spirit of divine wisdom and intelligence. Let us then beware of human foolishness which leads to all impurity before God! Let us always remain in Jesus and in His words of life, as He himself asked his disciples (cf. Jn 15:1ff), in order to cultivate Jesus’ true wisdom in our hearts every day and bear witness to it to everyone in the environment where we live. Thus we continue the mission of Jesus, incarnate Wisdom of God, in the world, and at all times we sing the divine praise with faith and gratitude: The revelation of your words [O Lord] sheds light, gives understanding to the simple. Amen. (Ps 119:130)