Dear Catholic Exchange:
Normally I won't send am email to get this question answered but it is a very strong point of division in our extended family. A close relative who converted to become a Catholic and now teaches CCD class has been teaching that Leviticus 11: 1-47 and Deuteronomy 14: 3-29 teach us what we cannot eat such as pork, shrimp, and lobster.
I am a cradle Catholic educated in Catholic grade and high schools and a Catholic university. I've never heard the Catholic Church teach this as Church law. What are the biblical references I can use to help in this situation? It has become very difficult to go out to eat with them because their children question why we eat those foods when they are forbidden. Thank you for your help.
Pax. 🙂 John McCue, Sr.
Dear John:
Your relative is not reading the Old Testament in light of New Testament revelation and the Tradition of the Church. Mark 7:14-23 plainly records the following:
And [Jesus] called the people to Him again, and said to them, “Hear Me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him.” And when He had entered the house, and left the people, His disciples asked Him about the parable. And He said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot defile him, since it enters, not his heart but his stomach, and so passes on?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man.”
Note, particularly, verse 19. All foods are clean. The purpose of the ceremonial and kosher laws was to give an image of the impurity that is really due to sin and, therefore, of our need for Christ. But when Christ came, the ceremonial law was fulfilled and is not binding on us any more (see, for instance, Acts 10). This was exactly the question that was debated by the Church in Acts 15 (please read it) and it is virtually the whole subject of the Epistle to the Galatians. Your relative is, in fact, taking the same position as the “cirmcumcision party” and insisting that, unless you keep the ceremonial and kosher laws of Moses, you cannot be saved. It is precisely this notion that the Church rejected at the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15 and that Paul spent long years trying to educate people about.
It is especially important for a CCD teacher to know what he is talking about. If your relative wants to observe the kosher regulations, he can (so long as he doesn't imagine that by keeping such regulations he is earning the grace of God). But there is no demand from God that he do so, and there is a prohibition from God against any attempt by him to bind
the consciences of others.
Mark Shea
Senior Content Editor
Catholic Exchange
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