Jesus touches on issues which are not at all irrelevant to our Christian living today. He attacks the mentality of those who are sticklers for tiny details of ritual or doctrine while ignoring the bigger issues of justice, compassion and good faith. Jesus compares this to the scrupulous filtering of drinks to avoid swallowing even the tiniest "unclean" insect while at the same time "swallowing camels". There are certain Christians who love to speak at length about all the things that are not being done right in the Catholic Church and who claim for themselves a level of doctrinal and moral orthodoxy which even Rome does not claim.

Jesus compares such people to those who are careful to wash the outside of cups and dishes while the inside is full of the most undesirable contents. On the outside, the behaviour is impeccable but inside there is a total lack of a true Gospel spirit, the spirit of love and integrity, of compassion and a sense of justice for all. Instead, there can be a heart full of criticism, anger, resentment, contempt for those who do not think the same, all cloaked in an outer veneer of moral and ritual rectitude.

As we read this passage, let us hear the words addressed not just to the Gospel Pharisees but the Pharisee in each one of us. Let him or her who has never judged another cast the first stone!