Our Venerable Father Theodore of Syceum (613).
Acts 10:1-16. John 6:56-69.
Read Acts 10:1-16
Christ is risen! Truly, He is risen!
Clean and unclean. Pure and impure. Sacred and profane. These are categories which permeate and have permeated humanity’s religious experience from the beginning. The things of God or at least permitted by God are clean, pure, or sacred, whilst the things forbidden by God or distant from God are unclean, impure, or profane.
This was certainly the case for the people of the old covenant, especially concerning what may or may not be eaten and what kinds of actions render one ritually impure.
Christ, however, makes all things new again. He ushers in salvation which fully reveals the Father and reality as it truly is. According to this new revelation in Christ, the barriers between clean and unclean, pure and impure, and sacred and profane are broken.
No longer are we concerned with eating unclean animals, for all animals are God’s creation and declared cleansed by God. No longer are we concerned about maintaining ritual purity by following the details of the Law, for we strive for holiness in Christ. No longer do we consider the earth somehow profane compared to the things of heaven, for this earth was created by God and declared ‘very good’.
The only thing that matters now is how we love God and others. Do I strive to love the Lord with all that I am and have? Do I love others as myself? Do I live my life with the love that Christ showed for us on the cross? This is what matters, not whether I avoid certain foods because they are impure or perform certain rituals because they are prescribed.
So love the Lord your God and love your neighbour. Live like this well and nothing else matters.