Lent Week 3: Tuesday | Matthew 15 (1-20)
To Duffy and the Church in the Americas: Peace and Grace from Brother Jonathan in Albany.
As we reach the Tuesday of our third week in this Lenten retreat, I want to encourage each of you to stay the course; the "desert" of Lent is where the soul’s most beautiful blooms begin to take root. This encouragement is sent with a particular warmth to the vegans, vegetarians, and flexitarians among us who are intentionally eating lower on the food chain this season to protect the planet’s biodiversity and safeguard against catastrophic climate change. There is a profound, literal sense of being in the wilderness here—a spiritual and ecological desert where we grapple with a deep concern for the future health of our common home. At times, it feels as though we are an underappreciated and insufficiently effective countercultural vanguard, marching toward a "sustainable promised land" that remains far distant and, in our darkest moments, feels almost unachievable. Yet, it is precisely in this weary trekking that our discipline becomes a prophetic witness.
In today’s reading of Matthew 15:1-20, we encounter a challenging confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees regarding the "traditions of the elders." Jesus masterfully pivots the conversation from external rituals—like the meticulous, ceremonial washing of hands—to the internal state of the soul. He reminds us that while our physical actions and dietary choices matter as expressions of stewardship, what truly defiles a person is not merely what enters the mouth, but the intentions, words, and "blind guides" that emerge from an unexamined heart. For those of us focusing on our plates this Lent, this passage serves as a vital gut-check: our ecological fasting must be rooted in a heart of love and humility, rather than a performance of legalism.
However, we must also address the flip side of this encounter. There are those in the Church establishment today—the modern "Pharisees"—who weaponize this very passage to dodge responsibility for the urgent dietary transitions our planet requires. They might ask, with a touch of cynicism, "Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They do not eat meat or dairy as our fathers did." To this, I suspect Jesus would respond not by validating a 'carnist legalism,' but by pointing once again to the weightier matters of the law: mercy, justice, and faithfulness to the Creator. To use "what goes into the mouth" as an excuse to ignore the suffering of creatures and the collapse of ecosystems is to miss the heart of Christ entirely. If our "tradition" involves a stubborn refusal to utilize the green economic engine of plant-based alternatives—resources provided to us in this specific moment of crisis—are we not like those who "cancel the word of God for the sake of your tradition"? Jesus’ rebuke of the Pharisees was a rebuke of a heart hardened against the needs of the time; true mercy today surely includes a diet that does not cost the Earth its life.
To help anchor our Matthew deep dive this year and navigate these complex Jewish-Christian dialogues, I recommend we contemplate "Everything You Need to Know About St. Matthew (And His Gospel)" by Dr. John Bergsma. This video provides some of the scholarly yet accessible scaffolding we need to understand the cultural tensions Jesus was addressing. Furthermore, we find a modern echo of this call to internal authenticity in Pope Leo’s recent Message for Lent 2026. In his address, the Holy Father invites the global faithful to look past the "surface noise" and the superficiality of modern life to find the quiet, transformative power of the Word. He challenges us to ensure our outward activism—including our environmental witness—is fueled by an inner spiritual renewal. As we navigate the tension between our current "wilderness" and the hope of a restored creation, let us take these lessons to heart as we pray for the world church:
Lord, look with favor upon Your world church. Grant us the clarity to see beyond mere ritual and the courage to cultivate a heart that reflects Your purity. Strengthen those who labor for the protection of Your creation, and may our Lenten journey bring us closer to the Truth that sets us free. Amen.
Written by Gemini. Prompts and editing by Jonathan:
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