Gospel of 23 June 2020
Tuesday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
Matthew 7:6,12-14
Treat others as you would like them to treat you
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Do not give dogs what is holy; and do not throw your pearls in front of pigs, or they may trample them and then turn on you and tear you to pieces.
‘So always treat others as you would like them to treat you; that is the meaning of the Law and the Prophets.
‘Enter by the narrow gate, since the road that leads to perdition is wide and spacious, and many take it; but it is a narrow gate and a hard road that leads to life, and only a few find it.’
Reflexion
Yesterday our Lord cautions us not to judge others except with a standard that we are prepared to submit to. But today, He immediately makes a scathing judgment on an undisclosed group of people and uses bestial terms like “dogs” and “pigs” to describe them.
Who could He be referring to? Who could have deserved such stinging judgment from none other than the Lord Himself? What is most intriguing here is that Jesus’ mention of “dogs” and “pigs” is a clear allusion to the supposedly morally upright Pharisees, not to the Gentiles whom the former normally dismissed as unclean animals. Dog was a label they normally reserved for the pagans and for society’s lowest outcasts and untouchables. Pig, the epitome of uncleanliness, was an even more demeaning label. But here our Lord uses these two terms to describe the righteous Pharisees who pride themselves of being morally clean.
Our Lord uses the labels “dogs” and “pigs” to describe them because they are antagonistic to the gospel, that which is holy and precious like pearls. Thus, instead of appreciating the message of the gospel, they treat it with contempt — “they may trample them and then turn on you and tear you to pieces.”
Jesus Himself modeled the kind of discretion He is calling for here. He regularly hid things from the wise and revealed them to little children. In other words, to humble and repentant people who readily received His teachings, He gave more. But He deliberately concealed truth from arrogant and self-righteous people. The parables He told served this purpose: they obscured the truth from people whose hearts had hardened. He did not give sacred things to dogs or cast His pearls before pigs.
What would be the opposite of swine and dogs? They are ones described in the Beatitudes as “those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matt 5:6). The former are puffed up with pride and reject any truth that does not fit their agenda. They will then turn against the messenger and tear him to pieces.
But the spiritually famished—those who know they are sick and need a physician - will turn from everything else for the life-giving, thirst-quenching, soul-satisfying truth they seek. And those who seek shall find.