Tuesday in the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time, June 21, 2022

Matthew 7, 6; 12-14

Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not give what is holy to dogs, or throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them underfoot, and turn and tear you to pieces.  Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the Law and the Prophets. Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few.”  

St. Matthew’s presentation of the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount continues in today’s Gospel reading.  Although many groups of consecutive verses in this Sermon revolve around particular themes, many verses hang loosely from its woven garment, and such is the case here.

“Do not give what is holy to dogs, or throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them underfoot, and turn and tear you to pieces.”  Examining this verse, we must first realize that the Israelites did not much esteem for dogs.  This is evident in verses such as 2 Samuel 16, 9: “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king?”  That is, the only thing worse than a living dog was a dead one.  Abishai, the son of King David’s sister, said this to David concerning the cursing of a member of the deposed King Saul’s family.  They had their uses for herding sheep, but the Israelites do not seem to have kept them as pets as their neighbors, such as the Phoenicians, did.  For them, dogs served mostly as scavengers that ate the dead bodies of animals and humans.  Thus, they would incur uncleanness which could be transferred to people.  And so when Jesus says, “Do not give what is holy to dogs”, he means not to give them that which is dedicated to God lest they make it unclean.  For this reason the Church carefully teaches her children and also those who wish to become her children the meaning of holy things such as the Gospel and the Sacraments.  She teaches her children of their great sacredness and how they should be accepted from God as his most precious gifts.  A person who has only a slight education in holy things is likely to consider them lucky charms that they need for success and to ward off enemies, or will receive them without thinking.  This is the meaning of the swine which tramples holy things underfoot and turns on anyone who dares to offer correction.

“Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the Law and the Prophets.”  The Golden Rule has been criticized as unworkable because it is too broad in scope, but we have to remember that it was made for people who had entered a covenant with God and were striving for righteousness.  Such people do not make ridiculous demands on others and expect them to be carried out, but rather are looking for the good that they can do for others.

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many.”  St. Matthew quotes the Lord several times in his Gospel as saying that the way to heaven is “narrow” and not easy to find or to walk.  It is a regular theme in his Gospel.  St. Matthew does this in order to remind the persecuted Galilean Christians for whom he was recounting the Lord’s words and deeds that the way to heaven is supposed to be hard, wending its way through threats, tribulation, and even martyrdom.  We struggle against our fallen human nature and the world struggles against the Faith.  But the one who passes through the narrow road enters a land of endless peace.  “How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few.”  The word translated here as “constricted” also has the meaning of “persecuted”.  They are indeed “few” who find it as a fraction of all humanity that has ever lived, and yet the numbers will exceed our counting: “Behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the Throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands” (Revelation 7, 9-10). 

Through cherishing the holy gifts we are given by the Lord, and following his commandments, we shall walk the narrow way unhindered to the place where the One who sits upon the throne and the Lamb wait for us.