STRAIN OUT THE GNAT AND SWALLOW THE CAMEL!

2 Ts 2,1-3a.14-17; Ps 95; Mt 23,23-26
28 AUGUST
Scribes and Pharisees filter the midge for others, while they not only swallow the camel, but also every other animal, including the largest pachyderms. Here is how Jesus unmasks their hypocrisy when they accuse his disciples of not respecting the tradition of the ancients, that is, of not observing the Law of the Lord.

Now when the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. (For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders. And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles (and beds). So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, “Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?” He responded, “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honours me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.’

You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.” He went on to say, “How well you have set aside the commandment of God in order to uphold your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honour your father and your mother,’ and ‘Whoever curses father or mother shall die.’ Yet you say, ‘If a person says to father or mother, “Any support you might have had from me is qorban”‘ (meaning, dedicated to God), you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother. You nullify the word of God in favour of your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many such things.” He summoned the crowd again and said to them, “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.” When he got home away from the crowd his disciples questioned him about the parable. He said to them, “Are even you likewise without understanding? Do you not realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters not the heart but the stomach and passes out into the latrine?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) “But what comes out of a person, that is what defiles. 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” (Mk 7,1-23).

Jesus sees the heart of the scribes and Pharisees like a whitewashed sepulchre. It is full of robberies and all iniquity. This is the camel they swallow and that makes them feel good before God. Their conscience does not reproach them for anything. While the poor children of God were immediately pointed out as sinners and often declared even public sinners. Unfortunately it was like that yesterday, it is today and it will always be. Ministers of religion are not always maintained in fidelity to the Law of the Lord. They are the first transgressors.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. (But) these you should have done, without neglecting the others. Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel! “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.

When a minister of religion is corrupted, he can take two ways: indifference towards everyone and everything, declaring nothing sin or transgression of the Law of the Lord anymore. This is what is happening in our day. Or he can turn into a hypocrite. He condemns others for trifles, while he abandons himself to horrible crimes. But always, when one is outside the Law, one administers the Law badly, either sinning by defect or by excess. Whoever wants to administer the Law of the Lord according to truth must be its perfect observer. The Gospel is administered with the Gospel.

Virgin Obedient, Angels and Saints make us Christians with perfect observance of the Gospel.