Transformation, Inside and Out

In this day and age, I wonder if we can relate to some of the purity and dietary guidelines described in this Gospel passage. Most of us don’t keep kosher, but we live in a culture, at least in the United States, that’s pretty fixated on health and diet. It seems like every other day there’s a new diet trend that emerges. Some of them make sense, like the one where you eat lots of fruits and vegetables and healthy oils and fiber. Others, though, just seem odd, like one I heard of recently where you grind up oatmeal and drink it. What the what?

What is this about? I think it’s a tiny bit about wellness, but I wonder if it’s also a little bit about control. I know I’ve had times of my life when I’ve been scrupulous about what I’m eating and not eating, and there was a weird sort of comfort in that. During the pandemic there was such a focus on disinfecting. How much hand sanitizer did we go through? Did that make us feel safer? Sometimes that kind of scrupulosity can move us to an unhealthy level, so we’re obsessing about food and hygiene rather than just living our lives.

In the Gospel, the Pharisees are talking about Jewish kosher guidelines and purity practices, and some of these make good sense. If you’re coming from the marketplace, for goodness sake, wash your hands. We can tell in our First Reading from Deuteronomy that the Law is very important to the Jews. It’s not just about cleanliness, but it’s part of their identity, a source of pride, and even hope, a sign of God’s care for them. So, when the Pharisees challenge Jesus and his followers about how they are practicing the purity code, is that about Jewish identity? Is it about hope and God’s care? It seems to me that this is more about control, specifically the Pharisees’ control over Jesus. They’re calling him out, even questioning his legitimacy as a Jew. And maybe his disciples really are a rude, crude bunch of people who don’t wash their hands, but even so, they’re doing their best to live their faith authentically through Jesus. 

Jesus responds by offering a challenge in return. He does it publicly. He says the problem is more about what comes out of our bodies than what we put into them. "From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within, and they defile."

Jesus is offering an invitation and a challenge to purify ourselves from the inside rather than obsessing about what we eat and how we clean it. Honestly, that sounds more difficult. It’s harder to control my attitude than it is to control what I eat. It’s easier to fixate on health and wellness from the outside than it is to get really honest in my self-reflection and make internal changes. And yet, this self-reflection and change of heart is the thing is to which Jesus is calling his followers, including us.

In this passage he gives us this challenge, but he doesn’t say anything about how to do it, so I read ahead, looking for a little more instruction. Instead of instruction, what I found following this story in the Gospel of Mark is the story of the Syrophoenician woman. That’s the one where a woman approaches Jesus on behalf of her daughter, and, because she’s a foreigner, he tells her, “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” Wow. Jesus is still talking about food, but this time what comes out of him is not a teaching about keeping kosher but a narrow-minded response or even a bit of bigotry, one of those things that live in the human heart that we need to eradicate. What comes out of the woman in response, though, is the boldness to answer back to Jesus, along with a deep faith that stops him, checks him, and ultimately calls him to a moment of conversion. She changes his heart.

I’ve always been uncomfortable with this story. I don’t like to see Jesus treat a woman like this. There’s something in his tone that sounds a lot like the Pharisees he just challenged. On the other hand, this story also shows me that even Jesus can change. He’s fully human, after all. And though the human heart is full of evil thoughts, the human heart can also change. If it couldn’t, why would Jesus keep challenging us? If it was impossible to move us from our set ways, why bother? But people can change, and in this story with the Syrophoenician woman, we see a change of attitude happen in Jesus.

We too can change our attitudes, and from our attitudes come changes in our actions too. In other parts of the Gospel, Jesus gives us what we call the Beatitudes. He tells us that those who are poor in spirit, meek, and hungry for justice are blessed. As we seek to change ourselves from within, we also become more outwardly loving, more willing to serve people. Also, change can come in reverse — our actions can change our attitudes. In my experience, serving other people makes me more open, less judgmental, and more compassionate. As Christians, we are people of action and not just thoughts and words. As James invites in the Second Reading, “Be doers of the word and not hearers only. . . . Religion that is pure and undefiled . . . is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”

So, we change our attitudes from within, and those internal changes translate to outward action, and vice versa. Our thoughts and actions work in tandem, and as we grow, we reflect our changes inwardly and outwardly. What Jesus is calling us to is alignment between our attitudes and our actions, an authentic living out of our faith. Jesus is interested in transforming the whole of us, and if we’re open, we allow that transformation to happen, just as it happened to him.

Isn’t that what the Paschal Mystery is all about — wholistic transformation, dying to ourselves bit by bit and rising with Christ? It’s a challenging movement that we undertake throughout our lives, but we don’t do it alone. The Spirit of God transforms us bit by bit into Christ.

For Reflection

• Have you ever felt called to change your outward faith practices? Maybe change your prayer practice? Maybe try a new kind of service? What made you feel called to make a change? What did that look like?

• Have you ever felt called to make an inward change? What brought that about? How did you know you were being called to make that change from within? How was God with you in that transformation?

• Maybe you could take a little time with God to listen, open to the Spirit, and see what God might be calling you to in these readings.

By Sister Leslie Keener, CDP

Sister Leslie Keener, CDP is the director of God Space, a community-building spirituality ministry in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. She’s a Sister of Divine Providence with a Masters in Ministry and a Certificate in Spiritual Direction and Retreats from Creighton University. She directs retreats, meets with people for spiritual direction, and serves as the vocation director for her community. She enjoys music, meaningful conversations, and dancing.