“And when his disciples were come over the water, they had forgotten to take bread. Who said to them: ‘Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.’ But they thought within themselves, saying: ‘Because we have taken no bread.’ And Jesus knowing it, said: ‘Why do you think within yourselves, O ye of little faith, for that you have no bread? Do you not yet understand, neither do you remember the five laoves among the five thousand men, and how many baskets you took up? Nor the seven loaves among four thousand men, and how many baskets you took up? Why do you not understand that it was not concerning bread I said to you: Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees?’ Then they understood that he said not that they should beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
The disciples, so bound to Jesus with love, forgot even to take what is necessary for the body, because their hearts were so completely satisfied: “It is the spirit that quickeneth: the flesh profiteth nothing” (John 6:64). Love can tend to make one fairly loopy, forgetful, and in a sense out of sorts, because the mind is preoccupied with the beloved rather than daily affairs. Jesus then warns them to avoid the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, which is their teaching to observe astutely works of the Law, rather than being united to Jesus in love. While love expresses itself through actions, it is the love itself that matters. Thus does Wisdom exhort: “Hedge in thy ears with thorns, hear not a wicked tongue” (Ecclesiasticus 28:28); “Take heed to thyself, and attend diligently to what thou hearest: for thou walkest in danger of thy ruin” (Ecclesiasticus 13:16), that you may not look for truth apart from Truth Himself, falling into a yoke of error or empty work rather than of truth and sincere affection, thus St. Paul says, “I admonish tee, that thou stir up the grace of God which is in thee, by the imposition of my hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of sobriety” (2 Timothy 1:6-7); it is a call to awaken the fire of love, from which all action must proceed. Now, your soul is delicate, Theophila, for a garden needs maintenance and care, and the enemy seeks to cover it in weeds of falsehood: “But while men were asleep, his enemy came and oversowed cockle among the wheat and went his way” (Matthew 13:25), and thus to drink from non-Catholic streams is to remove yourself from the way Jesus thinks. Or, this can mean that, gaining a taste for non-Biblical books, your love of wisdom or the spirituality of certain writers overshadows your love of Jesus and Scripture, through which the Holy Spirit speaks to you: “More than these [words], my son, require not. Of making many books there is no end: and much study is an affliction of the flesh” (Ecclesiastes 12:12), for even the saints get things wrong here and there. Therefore, “a little leaven corrupteth the whole lump” (1 Corinthians 5:6), for being influenced by a spiritual writer that you did not need to hear, or worse still someone that never set out on the way of Love that is the spiritual life, can stagger your growth into the fullness of yourself: “And his nurse took him up and fled: and as she made haste to flee, he fell and became lame: and his name was Miphiboseth” (2 Kings 4:4). Now, the Lord was not plain in simply telling them to avoid this doctrine so that there may be a more visual image of the spiritual life, that it is one thing to avoid falsehood, yet another to see the effects it can leave in the soul. The disciples, however, did not understand, and wondered between them that they had no bread, having left behind the seven baskets. Now, He gently rebukes His disciples, having commanded them previously to have no care for food: “Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not you of much more value than they?” (Matthew 6:26), and would not therefore draw their minds back to it, but rather show that, even if a miracle is needed, He would not leave them hungry. Then, by unveiling that the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees is doctrine, it shows that corrupted ways of thought and false teaching are sour leaven, capable of turning the whole bread of the soul into unpalatable bread: “Behold, these loaves we took hot, when we set out from our houses to come to you, now they are become dry, and broken in pieces, by being exceeding old” (Josue 9:12), for when you are with another, they eat from the bread of your soul’s love, and when this is stale with lukewarmness, brittle with being weighed down by the Law, corrupted and moldy with error, or infested with the bugs of sin, it is an unpleasant experience for the one eating of this bread: “Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new paste” (1 Corinthians 5:7). The proper knowledge and use of Sacred Scripture is a queenly diadem for the soul, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you abundantly, in all wisdom” (Colossians 3:16); “And he set the royal crown on her head” (Esther 2:17), but its misuse is akin to sour grapes: “As a lame man hath fair legs in vain: so a parable is unseemly in the mouth of fools” (Proverbs 26:7). One’s true food, then, is the love of Christ expressed through His words: “Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4), and when the disciples understood this, their spirits were animated, not weighed down by ritual observances, but running free in the meadows of charity and understanding: “Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us abide in the vineyards” (Canticle 7:12).