So, my good friend, you thought I forgot you. How nice to see a college student not in a
Bible class, reading the Scriptures and asking questions—does my heart
good. There is yet hope in the world.
And you do choose one of the most taxing questions of our Lord to ponder
on. The big guns of Scripture study-the
theologians equally wonder aloud on this one.
Let us take a look:
Matthew 7:6 "Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your
pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and
tear you to pieces.”
Scripture must always be interpreted in the light of
Scripture and I truly believe that we use the lens of the Old Testament to
understand the New. With that in mind, I
always like to see what our Elder Brothers in the Faith-the original People of
the Book-the Jews have to say on a subject.
Here is an old Jewish proverb and we can see how Jesus
incorporates it into his teaching on the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7-"do
not cast pearls before swine", nor deliver wisdom to him, who knows not
the excellency of it; for wisdom is better than pearls, and he that does not
seek after it, is worse than a swine.''
Jewish proverb
There are many references from the Old Testament, but let me
pick my favorite for our discussion: Proverb 9:7“He who corrects a scoffer gets
dishonor for himself, and, he who reproves a wicked man gets insults for
himself.”
This saying appears in the Didache 9:5 in a completely
different context: “But let no one eat or drink of your Eucharist except those
who have been baptized into the name of the Lord, for the Lord has also spoken
concerning this: ‘Do not give what is holy to dogs’ (Μὴ δῶτε τὸἅγιον τοῖς κυσί).”
I added that last line in the original Hebrew translated into
Greek, for as a young man on campus, you never know when you need a proper
response to place one squarely in the quiet-and quoting from the Holy
Scriptures can hardly be called an insult, but it brings its own sting to the
right conversation—you might want to have it printed on a tee and the Greeks
will not get it but will not admit they do not know what it says. :D It
can be your own private giggle on the matter. Who knows, you might sell some.
FYI- when talking to the young Evangelicals, and when
encouraging young, fellow Catholics-the Didache is a short book that predates
the Bible—written between- 90-110 AD. It
is the oldest Christian work we have, and you will note the use of the term
with full Catholic meaning-Eucharist. It
is very short and you can Goggle and find it right on the Internet.
As I said earlier, some say this is the most difficult of
Jesus’s statements. I truly believe
there are others more difficult. The
obvious meaning can easily be gleaned and that is there is time to speak up and
there is a time to just remain quiet.
There are those we can do great good by words of encouragement and even timely
rebuke, and there are those that no amount of talking will profit ever and it
will only draw you into endless quarrels, strife, or worse. We learn as we go on those occasions. Mostly, we learn by the many conversations
that go array when we are young and we grow out of the need to argue or quarrel
for argument sake.
So in this first and easier explanation of what Jesus is
saying, it brings to mind a couple of my old Uncle Williams favorite
sayings. He was a simple cotton farmer.
He would tell me often, “When you throw a rock at a pack of dogs, the one who
yelps is the one that got hit.” And, “Never
try to teach a pig to sing—it frustrates you and annoys the pig”
Doubtless, as you grow in the wisdom of experiencing many
peoples and places these expressions will come to mean more to you-perhaps as
me, you will make them your very own and use them wisely.We come to know the
power of our words, and we know when they affect someone else, and we know when
it is time to stop offering them to certain folks and situations.
So the first and easiest lesson is one of discretion. We know when to talk and when to remain
silent.
And the second lesson is one of reverence. There are things
that are Holy. And the holy must never be mixed with not just the common, but
the unclean. You grew up in a home very
affectionate to animals and have had a wide range of pets over the years I have
known you, but praised among them always seems to be the dogs you have had.
That is a very Western concept. In the
East the dogs were wild, even as the most unclean animal was the pig. The dogs were not domesticated and enjoyed,
but ran in wild packs and were scavengers.
And the Jewish person was not only forbidden to eat from the pig, but to
even touch them.
Jesus is clearly telling us that the things of our religion,
the things that belong entirely to Him are holy and must not be mixed with the
unholy. Dogs and pigs in the East are
the lowest of the animal world, scavengers of the streets. And in the Bible
they reference such behavior among men. Look
at this one reference, you can find many: Revelation 22:15 “for without are
dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and
whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.”
We have a lesson of discretion and of reverence. But, I
believe there is so much more here. When
you read the entire passage as one reading-the Sermon on the Mount-Matthew
5-6-7 you see it is truly a model of the life in Christ, an original catechism
of Christian living. And as it is, it grows from the baby steps to the harder
teachings-the easier things to do and be daily, and those harder things we
struggle with, but in conquering come to maturity in our faith.
Many read the verses 1-6 as rules for judging others, and it
is that, but so much more. We must judge
ourselves, judge our own acts, and not try to enforce our judgments for
ourselves on everyone else. It is so
easy to make our word a law to everyone else. We must not judge rashly. In fact we should not be passing judgment on others.
It is so easy to make snap judgments, to judge too quickly, and
only see the worst of people. I outnumber
you greatly in age- in fact at your age you must see me as quite old—and this
is still a great struggle of mine. I
give you an example. When I was your
age-actually a Sophomore on campus, it dawned on me suddenly that the reason I
could stay up so late and study such long hours was that I was drinking over 20
cups of coffee a day-without realizing it.
Twice a day friends would gather at the same spot to talk and have
coffee, and I would get on a rant and the waitress would keep coming by and
filling my cup with me paying no attention, until my friends started counting
and reporting at the end of the day how many cups they saw me down. Knowing it
was bad, even dangerous for my health-I stopped and suddenly would not drink
any coffee. But, I also decided if 20 cups were not good for me, then no amount
of coffee was good for anyone, and I would silently judge anyone I saw drinking
coffee-the dopes, did they not know better? How could they do such a bad thing
to themselves? I would terrorize any who would listen on the dangers of coffee
and exhort them to quit. Sadly, I have done this over the years about a great
many things. Thankfully, for the most
part I have outgrown this behavior, but still I catch myself doing it-it is a
struggle.
I am glad to say that now, 2 cups of coffee each morning is
one of the delights of my day. I limit
it to that and only that, and enjoy it immensely. When it comes to advocates and reformers the rules
I now live best by—first reform me. It
helps me work on the necessary self-improvement, conquering defects and sins in
myself and hopefully living a godly example which inspires others to more Christ-like
living.
It was easy of the Jews as the chosen people, and it is easy
for us as Catholics today to have an elitist attitude—we are so much better
than others attitude. The entire summation of the Sermon on the Mount is the
context of the giving and loving Father.
In fact in every mass and many times in our daily rosaries we repeat the
prayer given here to us by Jesus-Our Father….
So in context-yes there are some people who so devalue the
sacred, and live such profane lives, that nothing we can say will admonish them
or lead them to repentance. But we are
to live in such a way that the love, mercy, goodness, and kindness of our God
shows and flows from our life in our everyday living. And even, though we
should not engage in word such folk, in life and in deed we should offer a door
of hope, by the very way we live. Often
we note that the worst example to the atheist or unbeliever is the actual
Christian they have experienced. We are sent out into the world, we are to in
every situation appear different-to be a light shining on the hill. And we are
never to live lives of narrowness and selfishness-the “us four no more” attitude
of many Christians. Matthew is showing
that everyone is highly valued in the Kingdom of God. Each person is an image bearer of God; each
person is created to be an image bearer of Jesus Christ. No person is ever a means, but each person is
an end—that end is to live with Jesus in His Father’s house forever-to know, to
love, to serve God and to live with Him forever, world without end. Note that
the last word-Matthew 28:19 is the command of Jesus to take his message to the
world and to make disciples of everyone.
Have you ever known me to be able to just say yes or no.
Giggles. Hopefully this gives you a bit of food for thought and does not
overwhelm you to never ask another Bible question. But, when you get a chance
have a comfortable seat in a quiet place-read out loud Matthew: 5-6-7 all in
one sitting and imagine Jesus sitting with his best friends on a beautiful day,
on the side of a hill talking to you.
Your friend,
Daniel
23, April 2013
Feast of St.
George
