How Are You Feeding Your Soul?

One

The Leaven of the Pharisees

After Jesus had performed one of His miracles of multiplying the loaves, He gave His apostles a strange warning. It came out of the blue, and they didn’t get it. 

He suddenly said, “Beware the leaven of the Pharisees.”  That was it. “Beware the leaven of the Pharisees.” 

Well, the apostles didn’t get it at all. They had no sense of metaphor. They thought, “Leaven, why’s he talking about leaven? Is He upset because we don’t have any bread? Is He hungry? Does He want bread? Is that why He’s talking about yeast?” 

And Jesus, at this moment, shows more frustration with His apostles than at almost any other time. He says, “Oh you of little faith! Why are you thinking about bread!” And then He reminds them of the two miracles where He made way more bread than anyone could eat. “Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand people or the seven loaves for the four thousand people? How can you not see that I’m not talking about bread?” 

Jesus doesn’t worry about bread. Jesus can make as much bread as He needs, whenever He wants. So what does Jesus mean when He says, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees”? 

Two

Your Body Can’t Live Without Food – Your Mind Can’t Live Without Teaching 

Finally, we read that the apostles realized that Jesus was talking about the teaching of the Pharisees. Remember, the human person is a composite of body and soul. And our bodies need food. We need food so badly, that we’ll eat anything if we get desperate enough. That’s the power of the body’s hunger. It forces you to eat something. 

But the soul has a similar hunger. It’s a hunger that forces you to seek teaching.  We need some ideas, we need some way to make sense of the world. If we can’t get good teaching, good ideas, we’ll scarf down bad ideas in desperation. 

They say that when men claim to believe in nothing, they’re actually ready to believe in anything. When men reject the mysteries of faith, they accept the blatant absurdities of propaganda. We can’t live without ideas. We can’t live without food for the mind. We can’t live without teaching. 

So where are you going to get that teaching?

Three

Where Are You Going to Get Your Teaching? 

Jesus says, “Beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees” In other words, don’t consume their teaching. Don’t swallow their ideas. That’s not good bread. Digesting that stuff will make you sick. 

Okay, but where will you get food for your mind? Where are you getting your ideas? Where are you getting your visual images? Where are you getting the examples that give you a sense of what’s right and wrong? There are a lot of bad ideas, bad images, and bad examples out there. So where is the good leaven? Where is the good teaching? 

It’s found in the Word of God which is made up of Scripture, Tradition (the writings of the saints) and the Magisterium (the teaching of the Catholic Church)  

So is that your main diet of ideas? Where are the good images?  The good images are the icons, the statues of the Holy Family, the crucifix on the wall, the stations of the cross, the pictures of the mysteries of the Rosary.

So is that your main diet of images? Where are the good examples? The good examples are the lives of the saints. They’re the only ones who can show you what normal means. Live with them, learn from them, and try to catch, by osmosis, the instinct for what it means to be happy, healthy, and holy. 

That’s the good bread. That’s the bread suffused with good leaven. That’s what we should be eating regularly.    

Four

A Little Leaven Affects the Whole Loaf 

You might say, “I have to stay well informed by the news to be a good citizen and when I’m exhausted, I just need to relax with a show. And the stuff I watch isn’t really edifying. And the blogs I read or the podcasts I listen to – these people aren’t motivated by Christian charity or Christian peace. After all, it’s not like I’m consuming this stuff all day. It’s maybe just a half-hour, or at most an hour or two, of every day. 

But notice that Jesus didn’t say “Beware of the Bread of the Pharisees.” Or “Beware of the whole loaf of the Pharisees.” He said, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.” You know, if you’ve ever made bread, that you just use a little yeast for a lot of dough. 

As St. Jerome says, “Leaven has this power, that, if mixed with flour, that which seemed small would grow into something larger and transform the whole loaf.”  

Jerome says it’s the same with false teaching, it doesn’t take much, just a pinch every day of lies, immorality, porn, and gossip, immorality will transform the whole person as leaven transforms the dough. So don’t mess around with bad ideas, bad images, or bad examples. Just letting a little yeast into the dough affects the whole loaf. Just indulging a little in these sources of false teaching can spoil your whole character. 

Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. 

Five

How Will You Feed Your Soul? 

Jesus often tries to get us thinking in terms of food for our souls. He tells His apostles that His food is to do the will of His Father in Heaven. He reminds us that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. So, let’s take stock of what we are consuming with our mind, what we are reading, watching, and listening to. 

Cut out the junk and feed your soul with the truth, beauty, and goodness it needs.

How well do you know the life, teaching, and example of Jesus? When was the last time you read His life in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John? Pick one, read a chapter a day, and think about it. 

Read the life of a saint like Maximilian Kolbe, Catherine of Siena, Fr. Kapaun, Thomas More, Edith Stein… Read the transcripts from the series we just finished which give you the Catholic Moral principles. Watch our Catechism series on YouTube at DailyRosaryMeditations.com.