Nit-Picker Or Disciple? Series

Tuesday of 21st week in Course

Today we have one of the great analogies of Biblical literature–only St. Matthew has it–you strain out the gnat and swallow the camel. Jesus says “Oy! You nitpick the little stuff and neglect the critical duties.” The people described by the Hebrew word "peroushim," which we translate Pharisees, were the separated ones, the elite who kept every little bit of the Law, even the parts specifically directed only at the Temple clergy. They carefully followed it, even paying tithes to the Temple on garden herbs, which we measure out by the gram. But it appears that in their commercial dealings they were notorious cheats, defrauding the poor to become rich themselves. Jesus kept pointing this out, and this is one of the reasons He was murdered at the behest of the privileged elites of Jerusalem.

Are any of us, perhaps, guilty of the same kind of offense? Oh, we no longer tithe on mint and rue and set up money-changing tables in the Temple. But all of us should search our consciences and ask if we are in need of repentance toward justice. I’ll just make a few suggestions of ways in which our modern hearts and minds entice us to swallow moral camels.

Students may be very careful to be respectful toward teachers, who are few, but not toward other students. That leaves both teachers and fellow students with moral indigestion. Teachers might have very carefully prepared lesson plans, but neglect to grade assignments promptly. Or they are always on time for school, but use the same yellowed lesson plans year after year, neglecting to adjust them for changing generations of students. Clergy are always tempted to do holy things without becoming holy. It’s a constant battle to make prayer not just external, but an action of listening to God that can change our hearts and behaviors. But the Holy Spirit is always ready to fill us with the spiritual energy needed to do that.

All of us, moreover, are guilty of paying more attention to the little injustices done to ourselves than the big ones done by society to the poor, powerless and marginalized. If I want to energize a student, I’ll get more results by misgrading a paper by one point than by summoning him to help out at a Habitat house or abortion protest. If in these days any preacher wants to stimulate a congregation, all that’s needed is to deliver a homily on our responsibility to care for the immigrant victims of the big cartels.

This Gospel is for everyone, but especially for those who are really trying to grow closer to God. We must never give up being vigilant in our pursuit of virtue. We need to constantly examine our consciences to see if we have placed idols of pleasure, convenience or wealth before our devotion to the One God. And we should, each day at the end, prayerfully review our actions and thoughts, discover those injustices we have committed, and repent of them so that we are less likely to commit them in the future.