“And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand:”
Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, listen to me, everyone, and understand this — the teaching shifts from the private confrontation with the Pharisees (verses 1–13) to a public declaration to the crowd. The listen to me, everyone is the public summons to the teaching that will follow. The understand this communicates that what follows requires more than hearing — it requires comprehension of a principle that runs counter to deeply held assumptions about purity.
Church Fathers on Mark 7:14
But the intention of the Lord in saying this was to teach men, that the observing of meats, which the law commands, should not be taken in a carnal sense, and from this He began to unfold to them the intent of the law.
For that man is a faulty hearer who considers what is obscure to be a clear speech, or what is clear to be obscurely spoken.
For some things are joined to others in such a way as both to change and be changed, just as food, losing its former appearance, is both itself turned into our body, and we too are changed, and our strength is refreshed by it.
Read all 10 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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