The battles within the self

Gospel MK 7:14-23

Jesus summoned the crowd again and said to them,
“Hear me, all of you, and understand.
Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;
but the things that come out from within are what defile.” 

When he got home away from the crowd
his disciples questioned him about the parable.
He said to them,
“Are even you likewise without understanding?
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?”
(Thus he declared all foods clean.)
“But what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him.
From within the man, from his heart,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile.”

"All of the significant battles are waged within the self."  Sheldon Kopp said this and he was right.  And it sounds a lot like what Jesus is saying in today's gospel.  To place the message of this gospel in context, I think Jesus is referring to the extensive Jewish dietary laws which I had to look up.  Jews are required by the Torah to eat kosher foods - cow and goat meat are kosher, camel and rabbit meat, no.  Meat and dairy should not be eaten together but separately.  And the list goes on.  The laws go well beyond food hygiene and are really a call to holiness.  Knowing what is kosher and not kosher goes hand in hand with knowing what is chaste and unchaste, deceitful and true, arrogant and humble.  And that's what Jesus is talking about here, yes there are food rules in the Jewish culture but he wants us to go deeper.  He wants me to understand the battles that are waged within the self so that I can choose holiness.