Marriage and Virginity
People do many things with closed mouth, silent lips and speech restrained; but they do nothing with bodily actions without first pronouncing it in the heart. For this reason, because there are many sins in interior speech that are not also sins in external deeds, but there are none in external deeds that are not first sins in interior speech, it follows that there will be purity and innocence in both respects if the gate of continence is placed on the interior lips.
4. For these reasons the Lord himself said with his own lips, First clean the things that are on the inside, and the things that are on the outside will be clean too (Mt 23:26). Also, in another place, when he was refuting the silly remarks of the Jews, who criticized his disciples for eating without washing their hands, he said, It is not what goes into the mouth that makes a person unclean; but what comes out of the mouth, that is what makes a person unclean (Mt
15:11). If this statement is taken to refer exclusively to the mouth of the body, it is absurd. It is not true that vomiting defiles someone who is not defiled by the food. Yet the food goes into the mouth, and the vomiting comes out of it. Without a doubt the first statement, where he says, It is not what goes into the mouth that makes a person unclean, refers to the mouth of the body; but the second, where he says, but what comes out from the mouth, that is what makes a person unclean, refers to the mouth of the heart. Then, when the apostle Peter asked him to explain this parable, as it seemed to be, he gave this answer: Are you too still devoid of understanding? Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is excreted (Mt 15:16-19)? We certainly appreciate that here it is the mouth of the body that food goes into. In the words that follow, however, our slow minds would not proceed to understand that it is the mouth of the heart, except that the Truth deigns to accompany even the slow ones. He said, What comes from the mouth comes from the heart (Mt 15:18). It is as if he said, "When you hear from the mouth, take it as meaning from the heart." I say both things, but I explain one with the other. The inner person has an inner mouth, and the inner ear hears this.
What comes from this mouth comes from the heart, and that defiles a person. After that, abandoning the word "mouth," which could be understood as the mouth of the body, he reveals what he is saying more explicitly. From the heart, he says, come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, perjury, blasphemy. It is these things that defile a person (Mt
15:19-20). While they can also be committed with external deeds, none of those other evils is possible unless evil thoughts come first; and these defile a person, even if something prevents the subsequent wicked and criminal external deeds. If the opportunity does not arise, and the