August 4, 2026
Memorial of Saint John Vianney
Gospel: Matthew 15:1-2, 10-14

Today is Tuesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time. The Church celebrates the Memorial of Saint John Vianney. The recently published Roman Missal introduces this saint as follows:

Saint Jean-Marie (John-Baptiste-Marie) Vianney (1786-1859) was born at Lyons (France) and, despite finding his seminary studies difficult, he was ordained a priest and spent forty-two years as Curé (parish priest) of Ars. Despite encountering much opposition, he reformed the parish, spending up to sixteen hours a day in the confessional and centring his life on the Holy Eucharist. Pius XII named him patron of parish clergy.
Today, the passage from the Gospel of Matthew tells us about a dispute between Jesus and the Pharisees. On this memorial, I would like to offer some reflections.

The Evangelist Matthew tells us that today, a dispute arose between Jesus and the Pharisees. The Pharisees accused Jesus’ disciples of not washing their hands before eating (cf. Mt 15:1-2). In their view, handwashing was a purification ritual. Because people inevitably came into contact with Gentiles, failing to purify oneself meant being unclean. However, in Jesus’ eyes, these are merely external. He is more concerned with the defilement that comes from the heart. He said, “It is not what enters the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth that defiles” (cf. Mt 15:11). This is the focal point of the dispute between Jesus and the Pharisees regarding cleanliness and uncleanness.

Perhaps we may be puzzled: what exactly constitutes the defilement that comes out of the mouth? We can see Jesus’ teaching in a similar account by the Evangelist Mark: “From within the human heart come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within, and they defile a person” (cf. Mk 7:21-23). From Jesus’ words, we see the many evil thoughts and wicked intentions of the human heart that He lists. These evil thoughts constantly tear at our relationship with God. For in the beginning, all that God created was very good. Each of us is made in the image and likeness of God. Yet, because of the disobedience of our first parents, each of us has been stained with original sin since the moment we left our mother’s womb. Sin makes us unfree, and it even makes us ugly.

Today, among many of the faithful, there exists a certain attitude: they believe that once they have received the Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ, which cleanses original sin and the defilement of actual sins once and for all, they will remain clean forever. To those among the faithful who hold such a view, I wish to say: Living in this passing world, we still coexist with this fading world. This fading world continues to tempt us to sin, causing all kinds of evil thoughts to arise in our hearts. The food we eat does not produce evil thoughts in our hearts. Rather, the various things we encounter and the environments we are in cause us to make decisions. Once we make decisions, we run the risk of doing evil. Thus we continue to wound the world that God has created.

On this Memorial of Saint John Vianney, let us together offer our prayer to God:

Almighty and merciful God,
who made the Priest Saint John Vianney
wonderful in his pastoral zeal,
grant, we pray,
that through his intercession and example
we may in charity win brothers and sisters for Christ
and attain with them eternal glory.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

©Totus Tuus 2026
Cum Approbatione Ecclesiastica