WEBVTT 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:03.520 There's sort of a ridiculous image in today's gospel. 00:00:03.839 --> 00:00:08.960 Jesus says that it is possible to strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. 00:00:09.279 --> 00:00:13.359 And the people listening to him would have understood exactly what he meant. 00:00:13.679 --> 00:00:26.800 A gnat was unclean according to Jewish law, so a particularly scrupulous person might actually strain his wine to make sure that some tiny insect had not fallen into it. 00:00:28.079 --> 00:00:29.920 Imagine being that careful. 00:00:30.079 --> 00:00:38.799 You inspect the cup, you strain the wine, and you make absolutely certain that you have not accidentally swallowed something unclean. 00:00:39.200 --> 00:00:47.600 But then Jesus says, you swallow a camel, the largest unclean animal those people would ordinarily have known. 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:50.079 It is meant to sound absurd. 00:00:50.640 --> 00:00:58.479 And Jesus means it to sound absurd because he is exposing something that religious people are particularly capable of doing. 00:00:58.799 --> 00:01:06.079 We can become enormously concerned about little things while becoming strangely comfortable with enormous things. 00:01:06.319 --> 00:01:08.560 That's the heart of the gospel today. 00:01:08.879 --> 00:01:15.439 Jesus looks at the scribes and Pharisees and says, You pay tithes of mint and dill and cumin. 00:01:16.480 --> 00:01:18.799 Think about how meticulous that is. 00:01:19.120 --> 00:01:24.560 You're literally measuring out their kitchen herbs to make certain that God receives his portion. 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:26.799 But notice something important. 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:29.920 Jesus does not condemn them for doing it. 00:01:30.159 --> 00:01:33.439 He actually says, These you should have done. 00:01:33.840 --> 00:01:37.120 Their problem is not that they care about the law. 00:01:37.359 --> 00:01:49.760 Their problem is that they have become meticulous about the small demands of religion while neglecting what Jesus calls the weightier things judgment, mercy, fidelity. 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:52.959 And that's where this gospel becomes uncomfortable. 00:01:53.280 --> 00:01:58.079 Because it is very easy to substitute religious precision for conversion. 00:01:59.280 --> 00:02:07.599 I can now I can know exactly when to stand, sit, kneel at mass, and still refuse to forgive somebody. 00:02:07.840 --> 00:02:12.240 I can know the teachings of the church and still destroy somebody with gossip. 00:02:12.479 --> 00:02:17.199 I can say the rosary every day and treat the people closest to me terribly. 00:02:17.439 --> 00:02:24.560 I can defend Catholic truth passionately and have very little charity towards the person standing right next to me. 00:02:25.039 --> 00:02:27.360 And Jesus says, be careful. 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:31.520 You may be straining out gnats and swallowing camels. 00:02:32.479 --> 00:02:38.080 That does not mean that the smaller thing is not important, or it doesn't mean that it doesn't matter. 00:02:38.240 --> 00:02:38.960 They do. 00:02:39.199 --> 00:02:40.479 Jesus says so. 00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:47.759 But religion becomes distorted when we use the smaller things to avoid confronting the larger things. 00:02:48.080 --> 00:02:50.479 And then Jesus changes the image. 00:02:50.879 --> 00:02:52.479 Talks about a cup. 00:02:52.879 --> 00:03:00.560 You cleanse and clean the outside of a cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence. 00:03:01.039 --> 00:03:05.360 And then comes the line that I think is really the heart of today's gospel. 00:03:05.759 --> 00:03:08.800 Cleanse first the inside of the cup. 00:03:09.280 --> 00:03:10.240 First. 00:03:10.879 --> 00:03:17.360 That word matters because Jesus understands something about the spiritual life that we often forget. 00:03:17.680 --> 00:03:19.919 God works from the inside out. 00:03:20.479 --> 00:03:23.360 We usually work from the outside in. 00:03:24.159 --> 00:03:26.000 We want to fix appearances. 00:03:26.240 --> 00:03:27.840 God wants the heart. 00:03:28.080 --> 00:03:29.520 We want to look faithful. 00:03:29.759 --> 00:03:31.439 God wants to make us faithful. 00:03:31.680 --> 00:03:34.159 We want other people to see our goodness. 00:03:34.479 --> 00:03:37.280 God wants goodness become true within us. 00:03:37.599 --> 00:03:40.400 And that helps to understand the first reading. 00:03:40.719 --> 00:03:40.960 St. 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:48.400 Paul tells the Thessalonians, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught. 00:03:48.719 --> 00:03:50.479 That's enormously important. 00:03:51.360 --> 00:03:55.280 Christianity is not something every generation gets to reinvent. 00:03:55.680 --> 00:03:57.280 We have received something. 00:03:57.439 --> 00:04:06.400 We have received a gospel, a faith, a sacramental life, a moral tradition, a way of following Jesus Christ handed from the apostles. 00:04:07.199 --> 00:04:09.759 We are called to hold fast to it. 00:04:10.719 --> 00:04:14.639 Today's gospel reminds us what the tradition is supposed to accomplish. 00:04:14.879 --> 00:04:16.720 It's supposed to make us holy. 00:04:17.120 --> 00:04:22.319 The goal is not merely to preserve the cup, the goal is for the cup to become clean. 00:04:22.560 --> 00:04:32.800 That's why Catholicism can never simply be a collection of things we do: mass, confession, prayer, fasting, devotions, the rosary, adoration. 00:04:33.279 --> 00:04:39.920 All those things matter enormously, don't get me wrong, but they're meant to do something to us. 00:04:40.720 --> 00:04:54.240 If I spend an hour before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and emerge every bit as bitter, dishonest, arrogant, or unforgiving as when I entered, well, eventually I have to ask whether I'm allowing the encounter to change me. 00:04:54.879 --> 00:04:58.800 Because the real question is not simply, do I practice my religion? 00:04:58.959 --> 00:05:02.800 The deeper question is, is my religion converting me? 00:05:03.120 --> 00:05:10.399 Am I becoming more merciful, more faithful, more truthful, more patient, more generous, more like Christ Himself? 00:05:10.720 --> 00:05:14.480 That's the examination of conscience Jesus gives us today. 00:05:14.720 --> 00:05:18.480 And perhaps there's a very simple prayer we can bring to the altar. 00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:20.560 Lord, show me the camel. 00:05:21.439 --> 00:05:26.000 Show me the enormous thing in my life that I have somehow learned not to see. 00:05:26.879 --> 00:05:32.240 Maybe I'm obsessed over somebody else's faults while refusing to confront my own. 00:05:32.480 --> 00:05:37.360 Maybe I'm very meticulous about religious practice but careless about charity. 00:05:37.839 --> 00:05:44.240 Maybe the outside of the cup looks wonderful while something inside desperately needs the mercy of God. 00:05:44.480 --> 00:05:46.879 Whatever it is, Lord, show me. 00:05:47.519 --> 00:05:50.399 And then clean first the inside of the cup. 00:05:51.120 --> 00:05:57.360 Because Jesus Christ did not come merely to make us look religious, He came to make us holy. 00:05:57.600 --> 00:06:01.759 And holiness always begins from the inside out. 00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:03.120 Amen.