Today’s Gospel (Mat 12:1-8), in which Jesus is rebuked for violating the Sabbath, reminded me of the video below. It illustrates how we sometimes follow smaller rules while overlooking bigger ones in the process.
The Lord Jesus was often scorned by the people of His day, who claimed that He overlooked certain details of the law (often Sabbath observances). But those who rebuked him for this were guilty of far greater violations. For example,
- [Jesus] went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.” Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent. He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus (Mk 3:1-6).
- Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone (Luke 11:42).
- Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.” The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?” (Lk 13:14-16)
- You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean (Matt 23:24-25).
Yes, they are straining out gnats but swallowing camels, maximizing the minimum but minimizing the maximum. Note that in the first passage above they are actually planning to kill Jesus for healing on the Sabbath!
Perhaps my all-time favorite illustration of this awful human tendency is in the Gospel of John:
Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness the Jews did not enter the palace; they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. So Pilate came out … (John 18:28-29).
They are plotting to kill a just and innocent man, indeed they are plotting to kill God. They are acting out of wickedness, envy, jealousy, hatred, and murderous anger, but their primary concern is avoiding ritual uncleanliness! Yes, they are straining out gnats but swallowing camels.
We who are pious and observant need to be wary of this tendency. Sometimes in congratulating ourselves over adherence in lesser matters, we can either offend or neglect in weightier ones. Perhaps I attend Mass each Sunday (a grave obligation); perhaps I pray the rosary (a highly commendable practice); perhaps I tithe (a commendable precept). These are all things that ought to be done (one is commanded, one is commended, and one is a precept). But what if at the same time I am hateful toward someone at the office, unforgiving to a family member, and/or insensitive to the poor?
The danger could be that I let my observance of certain things allow me to think that I can “check off the God box” and figure that because I went to Mass, prayed the rosary, and gave an offering, I’ve “got this righteousness thing down.” Too often, very significant and serious things like love, mercy, forgiveness, and charity are set aside or neglected as I am busy congratulating myself over my adherence to other, sometimes lesser, things.
This oversight can happen in the other direction as well. Someone may congratulate himself for spending the day working in a soup kitchen, and think that he therefore has no need to look at the fact that he is living unchastely (shacked up, for example) or not attending Mass.
We cannot “buy God off,” doing certain things (usually things that we like) while ignoring others we’d rather not. In the end, the whole counsel of God is important.
We must avoid the sinful tendency to try to substitute or swap, to observe a few things while overlooking others.
We see a lot of examples of this in our culture as well. We obsess over people smoking because it might be bad for their health while ignoring the health consequences of promiscuous behavior, which spreads AIDS and countless venereal diseases and leads to abortion. We campaign to save the baby seals while over a thousand baby humans are killed each day in the United States. We deplore (rightfully) the death of thousands each year in gun homicides while calling the murder of hundreds of thousands of babies each year a constitutional right. The school nurse is required to obtain parental permission to dispense aspirin to students but not to provide the dangerous abortifacient “morning after pill.” We talk about the dignity of women and yet pornography flourishes. We fret endlessly about our weight and the physical appearance of our bodies, which will die, and care little for our souls, which will live. We obsess over carbon footprints while flying on jets to global warming conferences at luxurious convention center complexes.
Yes, we are straining gnats but swallowing camels. As the Lord says, we ought not to neglect smaller things wholly, but simply observing lesser things doesn’t give us the right to ignore greater ones.
Salus animarum suprema lex. (The salvation of souls is the highest Law.) While little things mean a lot, we must always remember not to allow them to eclipse greater things.
The ideal for which to aim is an integrated state in which the lesser serves the greater and is subsumed into it. St. Augustine rightly observed,
Quod Minimum, minimum est, Sed in minimo fidelem esse, magnum est.
St. Augustine – De Doctrina Christiana, IV,35
(What is a little thing, is (just) a little thing. But to be faithful in a little thing is a great thing.)
Notice that the lesser things are in service of the greater thing—in this case fidelity. And thus we should rightly ask whether some of the lesser things we do are really in service of the greater things like justice, love, mercy, fidelity, kindness, and generosity. Otherwise we run the risk of straining out gnats but swallowing camels.
Enjoy this commercial, which illustrates how one rule (no loud voices in the library) is observed while violating nearly every other.
Thank you. This teaching can also be applied to liturgical innovation where the lesser can tend to eclipse the greater. For example, the seemingly intense desire to quickly introduce “ad orientem” adaptations to liturgy for Advent (a looking away to the east for God who comes) is a very minor concern, in my opinion, when compared to the much greater importance of looking to the parish tabernacle or altar toward the Presence of God Who is already come for us. The Eucharist is source and summit of our faith, yet some ecclesiastical leadership see fit to eclipse that important reality with such a sentimental concern for looking in a direction where He did not tell us to find Him. He says He is with us always until the end of time, yet we eclipse that with a looking away to find Him where He did not say He would be.
Feasibility analysis: There is the physical reality that “east” on earth leads to an infinite number of places in the universe along a circular plane the depth of the north-to-south diameter of the earth, depending upon a person’s location on the surface of the earth. As such, east also includes whatever is west and west includes whatever is east within the infinite segment of area of this three dimensional disk, and this can only be understood from the perspective of the earth, not from the perspective of all of creation in general. In fact, this relatively thin, disk-shaped segment of the area of the universe would exclude almost all of the area of the universe. If you think about it, a way He would find us would be like how lightning (electrical current) is attracted to and finds a particular pole with a charge which courses precisely through any medium to find that to which it is attracted, but which only follows the area of that thin disk the depth of the earth…But His lightning is the hidden pulse which enables all life. His lightning, instead of destroying life and matter as raw electrical current does, would bring new life, perhaps in a dramatic way. “I make all things new.”
So, did I just strain out a gnat just now? ????
@Taylor,
You’ve missed something very basic about the meaning of the word in the context it is used. Although the term “ad orientem” does *literally* mean “to the east,” nonetheless when used in a liturgical context the phrase isn’t *meant* literally. It means “liturgical east” which, if the church building was constructed a certain number of years ago is the same as geographical east, but if the church was constructed more recently, simply means “towards the tabernacle” (same way as the people). Which I take it is what you want?
So I think you haven’t strained a gnat, but a shadow that looked like a gnat (or a larger object) in poor light, but in light of what was really said (liturgical east, not geographical east) turns out not to even be a thing at all.
I’d like to add, just in case I misread you and you do understand “liturgical east” but just don’t see its importance, I’d say there’s a profound richness in the symbolism of the priest facing the same way as the people during the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
It emphasizes at least two things that you didn’t mention:
1) It emphasizes the primacy of God in Eucharistic worship, rather emphasizing than some sort of interaction between the people and the priest. The priest facing the people makes it seem like he’s talking to them and they’re talking to him. When really during the Liturgy of the Eucharist (with a few exceptions) both are talking to God.
2) It emphasizes humility on the part of the priest. In some aspects of his ministry the priest is the representative of God’s authority towards the people (such as when he teaches during the homily or binds and loosens in Confession). But this aspect of his ministry (the offering of the prayers and sacrifices during the Liturgy of the Eucharist) the priest is the representative of the people towards God, a much more humble position. The posture facing the same way as the people indicates a humble unity with them, a simple stepping forward as one of the multitude bearing the offering from all on behalf of all.
The letter of the law should go hand in hand with the spirit of the law. Following only the letter of the law becomes hypocrisy and following only the spirit of the law becomes humanism. Both are necessary for a complete understanding of the faith.