Homily | August 25, 2026 | God Cleanses The Inside First, Not The Image | (Episode 245)

There's sort of a ridiculous image in today's gospel.

Jesus says that it is possible to strain out a gnat and swallow a camel.

And the people listening to him would have understood exactly what he meant.

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.

Imagine being that careful.

You inspect the cup, you strain the wine, and you make absolutely certain that you have not accidentally swallowed something unclean.

But then Jesus says, you swallow a camel, the largest unclean animal those people would ordinarily have known.

It is meant to sound absurd.

And Jesus means it to sound absurd because he is exposing something that religious people are particularly capable of doing.

We can become enormously concerned about little things while becoming strangely comfortable with enormous things.

That's the heart of the gospel today.

Jesus looks at the scribes and Pharisees and says, You pay tithes of mint and dill and cumin.

Think about how meticulous that is.

You're literally measuring out their kitchen herbs to make certain that God receives his portion.

But notice something important.

Jesus does not condemn them for doing it.

He actually says, These you should have done.

Their problem is not that they care about the law.

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.

And that's where this gospel becomes uncomfortable.

Because it is very easy to substitute religious precision for conversion.

I can now I can know exactly when to stand, sit, kneel at mass, and still refuse to forgive somebody.

I can know the teachings of the church and still destroy somebody with gossip.

I can say the rosary every day and treat the people closest to me terribly.

I can defend Catholic truth passionately and have very little charity towards the person standing right next to me.

And Jesus says, be careful.

You may be straining out gnats and swallowing camels.

That does not mean that the smaller thing is not important, or it doesn't mean that it doesn't matter.

They do.

Jesus says so.

But religion becomes distorted when we use the smaller things to avoid confronting the larger things.

And then Jesus changes the image.

Talks about a cup.

You cleanse and clean the outside of a cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence.

And then comes the line that I think is really the heart of today's gospel.

Cleanse first the inside of the cup.

First.

That word matters because Jesus understands something about the spiritual life that we often forget.

God works from the inside out.

We usually work from the outside in.

We want to fix appearances.

God wants the heart.

We want to look faithful.

God wants to make us faithful.

We want other people to see our goodness.

God wants goodness become true within us.

And that helps to understand the first reading.

St.

Paul tells the Thessalonians, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught.

That's enormously important.

Christianity is not something every generation gets to reinvent.

We have received something.

We have received a gospel, a faith, a sacramental life, a moral tradition, a way of following Jesus Christ handed from the apostles.

We are called to hold fast to it.

Today's gospel reminds us what the tradition is supposed to accomplish.

It's supposed to make us holy.

The goal is not merely to preserve the cup, the goal is for the cup to become clean.

That's why Catholicism can never simply be a collection of things we do: mass, confession, prayer, fasting, devotions, the rosary, adoration.

All those things matter enormously, don't get me wrong, but they're meant to do something to us.

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.

Because the real question is not simply, do I practice my religion?

The deeper question is, is my religion converting me?

Am I becoming more merciful, more faithful, more truthful, more patient, more generous, more like Christ Himself?

That's the examination of conscience Jesus gives us today.

And perhaps there's a very simple prayer we can bring to the altar.

Lord, show me the camel.

Show me the enormous thing in my life that I have somehow learned not to see.

Maybe I'm obsessed over somebody else's faults while refusing to confront my own.

Maybe I'm very meticulous about religious practice but careless about charity.

Maybe the outside of the cup looks wonderful while something inside desperately needs the mercy of God.

Whatever it is, Lord, show me.

And then clean first the inside of the cup.

Because Jesus Christ did not come merely to make us look religious, He came to make us holy.

And holiness always begins from the inside out.

Amen.