“Hear me, all of you, and understand.
Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;
but the things that come out from within are what defile.
From within people, from their hearts,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile.”
—Mark 7:21-23

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence.
Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.”
—Matthew 23:25-26

I come to you so hungry, Lord,
so thirsty I have come
for wine that only you can pour
like honey on my tongue.
But how can I sit down with you
when I am all unclean
to take your drink and taste your food,
pretending I'm pristine?

But you are living water, true,
and I an empty cup.
If I would taste a drop of you
then you must fill me up—
but cups, they must be purified
before they can be filled.
You see the things I hold inside—
how shall a drop be spilled?

Yet pour your waters over me
and pour them through my heart
and I shall have your purity
in every inward part.
Then shall my overflow be love
that water once had been.
You clean the inside of the cup—
and wine flows from within.

The Holy Grail depicted on a stained glass window at Quimper Cathedral Photo By Thesupermat – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35772669