Memorial of Saint Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
One of the great joys of summer is the fruit that becomes available. In our house, the big favorites right now are local peaches. Within just a day or two of purchasing them, they are ripe and juicy. The only down side of having a pile of them in a bowl on our kitchen counter is the relentless presence of fruit flies. I’ve tried covering the fruit bowl with a towel, putting the fruit in a closed container, and encouraging everyone to eat the peaches quickly before the fruit flies show up. I even bought “Fruit Punch”—a concoction that comes in a plastic container that attracts fruit flies when the lid to the container is open. They fly in but can’t get back out. Despite all my efforts, they persist.
The Pharisees were worried about little bugs too—gnats, to be exact. They worked hard to get them out of their beverages. Since gnats were considered unclean, the Pharisees wanted to make sure they didn’t consume them. But Jesus is apparently not especially taken with the Pharisees’ focus on the gnats. They focus so much on the little gnats that they fail to notice that they “swallow a camel”—which is also unclean and a whole lot bigger!
Jesus’ word about the Pharisees invites me to ask myself about the little “bugs” I focus on—whether they are fruit flies on my peaches or some other annoyance that, when I really think about it, doesn’t rise to much of a concern. Of course, there are little things that do matter a lot. And Jesus is right to remind us that we should take care of them—but not at the expense of taking care of the big things.
And we know what Jesus thinks the big things are—taking care especially of the poor and the weak and all those (like widows and orphans) whom society chooses to ignore. We know that he means for us also to show mercy to the stranger—the one society thinks is weird or threatening—since we once were strangers too. And we know that he wants us to be peace makers and to love even our enemy—since we are all children of God. Those are the big things. Not fruit flies on our peaches.
Of course, it’s a lot easier for me to focus on those fruit flies than it is for me to give care, show mercy, seek peace, and love all God’s children. But solving the problem of the fruit flies is not going to bring about the kingdom. Caring for the poor, being merciful to the stranger, seeking peace in all our relations, and loving even our enemy shows to even the skeptic that the Kingdom is already here. Amen.
- Sue Trollinger