We can all recall a day when we endured the aftermath of food poisoning. While every memory of it might still turn one’s stomach, the experience itself, I am sure, was not pleasant at all, if not perilous for some. I vividly remember undergoing such an ordeal about 33 years ago as an eight-year-old. After spending three days in the hospital, the doctor explained the reasons behind my continuous vomiting, loss of appetite, diarrhea, dehydration, and lack of energy to hold my head up: “The body has its mechanisms to expel that which is unhealthy, indigestible, and non-absorbent. Until the last bit of it is out, these conditions would persist.”

A profound reflection on such events in our lives reveals that the human body is designed with its own mechanisms not only to reject what is foreign and harmful to it but also to restore its purity when contaminated and defiled. Seen in this light, I believe, the words of Jesus in today's Gospel (Mk. 7:14-23) make tremendous sense. It is not what goes into a person's mouth that makes them unclean and defiled, but what comes out of his/her mouth such as evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, and folly.

While the book of Genesis 1.27 emphasizes that human beings are created in the image and likeness of God our creator, Jesus Christ, our Savior, in the Gospel text of today asserts that nothing that enters the mouth destroys that original beauty. St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus and the master of the Spiritual Exercises, puts it differently when he says “Man [woman] is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul” (Sp.Ex. Principle and Foundation). Putting them together, any sensible mind would wonder, “How is it possible then that these evil thoughts come out of us?” If we do not do the good we want but the evil we do not want, Saint Paul says, it is not because of our will but because of sin that is at work in our flesh (Rom. 7).

It is in this respect, I believe, that the day’s First Reading (1Kgs 10:1-10) that exults Solomon’s wisdom as witnessed by the Queen of Sheba and the Psalm that reveals the intricate relationship between wisdom and the just becomes rather appealing. We need to ask God for wisdom to discern the difference between a) what goes in and comes out of our mouth, and b) sin which is at work in us and the just we are created and called to be. In that wisdom, let us be mindful and guard against what comes out of us and how just we are because, while they have the power either to break or uplift, demotivate or inspire, and make a negative influence or positive impact on the world, they reflect the beauty of our soul and testify to its creator.