In a chapter defending feasts and fasts
against Luther and his followers, Eck noted the following objection:
It is not what enters
the mouth, that defiles a man [Mt 15:11]. (John Eck, Enchiridion of Commonplaces: Against Luther and Other Enemies of the
Church [trans. Ford Lewis Battles; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House,
1979], 106)
Interestingly,
this is a “proof-text” against the “Word of Wisdom” (D&C 89) by some critics
of the Church. In response to this appeal to Matt 15:11, Eck wrote:
Here Christ says nothing concerning fasts,
but is removing the error of the Jews, who believed foods touched by unwashed
hands were unclean, and one who ate this food became unclean, as is clear from
Matthew and Mark. This stupidity Christ rejected, stating that foods touched by
unwashed hands do not make unclean those who eat them. Otherwise, at the time
of the Apostles, by eating strangled or poisoned meat knowingly, one would not
become unclean. The Manichees also twisted this passage against delight in
foods. See Augustine, Against Faustus [18.2ff].
Observe therefore, that food entering the
mouth, which goes into the stomach, and is thereafter emitted, does not make
man unclean. But man himself, taking food against the prohibition of God and
Church, or also against the custom of the Church, and against his own vow or
with the scandal of his neighbor, makes himself unclean. For this proceeds from
an evil heart, that is, from the contempt of God and of the Church in its
commandments.
Hence
Augustine (DCD 14.12): “One ought not for that reason to deem light and
small that sin committed in Paradise, because it was committed with respect to
food, not indeed bad and harmful, except that it was forbidden,” etc. Thus wine
although good in itself, would have polluted the Rechabites, if they had drunk
it against the prohibition of their father, but because they abstained from it,
they pleased the Lord. For this follows, “These things the Lord of Hosts o
Israel said. Because you have obeyed the precept of Jonadab your father, and
have kept all his commandments . . . there shall not be wanting a man of the
race of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, standing before me, forever” [Jer 35:18f].
And
concerning John the Baptist, the Angel Gabriel foretold, “He shall drink no
wine or strong drink” [Lk 1:15]. Likewise: “His food was locusts and wild honey”
[Mt 3:4; Mk 1:6]. [If it were not salubrious to abstain from delicacies in food
and drink and to control the flesh with fasting and abstinence, these things
would by no means have been written in the Gospel in commendation of Jon the
Baptist.]
Eleazar
and Maccabeus chose rather to die, than to eat pork against the prohibition of
the divine law [2 Macc. 7:1fff] . . . But the disobedient Lutherans, empty
speakers and seducers, “subverting all houses, teaching that they should not,
for the sake of filthy gain, as . . .the Cretans are always liars, evil beasts,
slothful bellies” [Tit 1:11f], keep no fasts of the Church, “sitting upon the
fleshpots in Egypt” [Ex 16:3], loathing the heavenly manna, “overcharging their
hearts with overeating and drunkenness” [Lk 21:34], having mind and conscience
befouled. They boast that they are evangelicals but deny their deeds, since
they are abominable and unbelieving and reprobate toward all good works [cf.
Tit 3:3]. (Ibid., 107-8)