Jesus said to his disciples: "Do not give what is holy to dogs, or throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them underfoot, and turn and tear you to pieces.Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets.""Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many.How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few.
Source: https://dailygospel.org/AM/gospel
Analysis
Today's passage is a short yet deeply metaphorical passage. If one takes this passage at face value, it may be considered signs that Jesus hates animals. In the beginning of the passage, Jesus tells not to give what is holy to dogs, or pearls before swines, as if we do, it will be trampled by them and the animals will turn on us and tear us to pieces. Finally Jesus tells to do to others whatever we wish to be done to us, i.e. if we want respect, then we must respect, and that this is the entire message of the law and the prophets. Jesus also spoke of a metaphor about a narrow gate to life, and the broad road to destruction, and then the passage finishes.
Of course, Jesus is not actually implying that dogs and pigs are evil creatures, or creatures that are despicable, after all they too are a manifestation of the Divine. It's only a metaphor as the common view in Israel back then is that dogs and pigs are dirty animals. The holy things and pearls represent something precious, perhaps the truth or the kingdom of God. The animals may represent something that is dirty, evil, and vile. If we think about this carefully, this metaphor actually has something to do with a past passage, where Jesus tells that we can not serve two masters, we have to choose either God or mammon, and how does that relate to this passage?
The precious things can be seen as virtues, or our devotion towards God, something that is good for us and brings us closer to the kingdom of God. The animals here are mammon, or the forces of darkness and evil, that is the desires of the earth, hedonistic pursuits and physical pleasure. To throw our pearls or holy things to animals is akin to us not able to choose between God and mammon, or mixing the two pursuits, that is between the truth and the material desires. To throw the pearls means to associate the truth with pleasure, in which the truth will be deluded, shattered, and we will be overtaken by mammon. That is the meaning of the metaphor.
The next metaphor is a fairly simple and easily interpreted metaphor. In fact, Jesus made it very obvious to understand for us. The road towards life or truth is narrow and constricted, while the road towards death and destruction is very wide and broad, as Jesus describes it. This is logical, as a life in pursuit of happiness and pleasure alone is easy, you don't need to wonder about God and all of that stuff, it is a blissful ignorance of the truth. You only need to accept what is agreed to be true and you'll be fine. A life in pursuit of life and truth on the other hand, is very harsh, we would find truths that may be uncomfortable with us, or plain out earth shattering truths. Many people would probably see us as insane or disagree with us or even reject us completely. We would suffer a lot to search for the truth. And that is why the road towards life is narrow, but the road towards death is wide.
With that metaphor, does Jesus wish to condemn most of humanity into death by saying that few would go to the road of life? Of course not, Jesus is simply describing the situation and the logical description on the road to life or the road to death. In the end, of course Jesus wants everyone to go into the road of life, as that is the very reason the fracturing was done. The road to life certainly is hard, narrow and full of suffering, but it is our responsibility to help everyone else so they too can get to the road of life. As in the end, this is not the story of someone far and separate from us, this is our own story, and we have the choice to write it. I believe that is all I have to say, have a nice day and see you tomorrow.
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