Are we curious enough?

 “Do not give what is holy to dogs; and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under foot and turn and maul you…

“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Mt 7, 6. 12-14)

This is the Word of the Lord.

Today’s gospel reading is made up of three instructions that apparently have no link, nothing in common except that they are reported as spoken by Jesus Christ at the end of what we normally call “The Sermon on the Mount”.

The first one instructs the faithful not to give what is holy to dogs and not to throw pearls before pigs. The reason given is that dogs and pigs, will not appreciate the value of the things we throw to them, and they will turn against us and harm us. It is not easy to understand what Jesus really means by this, and scholars try to understand the instruction. I will not enter the discussion here. However, it seems to me that it asks us to identify and appreciate what is holy, and that pearls are precious. We do not, normally, throw away things that we value or that are precious. In a way, then, Jesus asks us to learn how to make good use of what we have.
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It seems that one of our problems today is that we do not appreciate the human person, for example. So, people in our days call “human rights” things that up to some time ago were considered “crimes” such as killing babies inside the womb or the trafficking of human beings. As Pope Francis said many times, the crisis we are passing through is more humanitarian than economic. A small fluctuation in the market is news and we are preoccupied, he reminds us, but that millions of people, especially children, have nothing to eat, no schooling, no health care, this is not news … and do we care?

Here comes the second instruction: “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you”. We fight for our rights, and this is good. Do we bother about other people’s rights? Fr. Antonio Montesinos, a Dominican Friar who lived about 500 years ago asked Christopher Colombo’s people “Are these not human beings?” He was referring to the way the Europeans treated the local people shortly after arriving on the Island of Hispaniola. This question is important in our days. Do we ever consider the holiness of “the others”, of the poor? Do we ever consider their human value; they could be precious pearls, if we think about it. Do we ever think that they would like us to treat them as we want other people to treat us? We might be rich now, but we could very easily be very poor tomorrow.

We should think about this. We will see that it is not an easy subject to meditate on, and more so, to decide to do something about it. What could our contribution be, if we do not have any political power, or any power to change things? … Is this true, that we have no power? Are not we alive? Don’t we have the power to think, to decide, to be creative? Are we not curious enough to search for new paths that lead to life?

Here comes the third instruction: “Enter through the narrow gate”, Jesus tells us. The reason he gives us is that “the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it, and the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life.”

We might ask: “Why did God make the gate narrow that leads to life? Why did he build the road that leads to destruction wide?” While I was thinking about these questions, it came to my mind that wide roads, highways even, are built wide and are neatly asphalted so people could travel fast and easily reach their destination. However speed and ease of travelling rob us of the possibility to enjoy the scenery around us. Everything is so fast! And how many traffic accidents occur and people die every day on our roads! It seems that our preoccupation is about the freedom we feel in being able to reach easily and quickly our destination. Nothing bad in this! Only that we do not see and are unable to enjoy the beauty of life one could enjoy if we go slower… if we take the narrow paths in the countryside, where we can admire nature, breath clean healthy air, meet people. Of course we need highways and ease of travel, but we should not forget to walk the paths that lead us through the countryside, with its trees, and flowers, birds, rivers, and the breathtaking scenery.

I think that this is what Jesus tells us: do not go through life so fast that you forget all about real life. He asks us to organize ourselves and find time to walk through life and enjoy it. Our culture leads us to forget the value of things, the value of life, and it challenges us to acquire wealth that is perishable. It tells us that we need money, and more money, and as fast as possible. It asks us to forget things, the problems and the beautiful things of life, and it offers us drugs in their various forms, uncontrolled sex and many other dreams which lead us to undervalue our own life and that of others. Jesus is right when he asks us not to give what is holy to dogs and not to throw our own pearls before pigs. We are holy! We are precious treasures! So holy and so precious, that Our Lord willingly gave up his life to make us aware of his love for us and to show us the way forward.

I am not intent on identifying who are the dogs and who are the pigs. I would only ask that people do not simply discard themselves and the others, for a quicker and easier way to pass through life. I pray that more and more people find the narrow gate that opens for us a simple way of life that allows us to admire and enjoy life as God imagined it when he created heaven and earth, and all the creatures that live on it, … humans included … and which enables us to rise and face the challenges we encounter on our way. Is not this what we do when we choose to walk in the countryside or track the mountain paths?  Why should we waste our life, materially and spiritually, throw it out, if we can enjoy it? We can, if we follow Jesus!