God creates and nourishes all creation. God has bestowed intelligence and freedom on humankind and ordered us to distinguish good from evil and not to choose evil. Evil will lead to death. Jewish traditions make a distinction between 'clean' and 'unclean' food. It is in the context of food that we hear Jesus talk about defilement in today's gospel reading. Jesus' view on defilement and wellness, however, does not focus on the body, but on the heart. Christian spirituality teaches that the human heart is the battleground where the good and the evil spirits fight to win us over to their side. We must choose between them.

We are affected in every waking moment by things from the exterior. We may feel joy, anger, unease, sadness and so on almost instantly. God, however, does not dwell on the feeling level. Neither does the Evil One, disguised as a Child of Light, work at this level. So it is important that we take our feelings and thoughts to a deeper level and watch to see whether they lead us to God or to our ego. Then in prayer, we talk with Jesus about our experience and listen to him.