Fr. John Zuhlsdorf: When Life Gives You Manure, Maybe it’s Time for Changes

Context is called for. The Gospel passage in Matthew 7 is at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. It is in a series of rapid lessons, often having phrases that are part of common parlance now. The parallel passage is in Luke 6: 20-49, the much short Sermon on the Plain (on a “level place,” Greek epì tópou pedinoû). It makes sense that, were there a level place on the big hill that is supposed to be the location of the Sermon on the Mount, then the Lord, standing below with the crowds remaining above, could have been heard more easily by a larger group, as if in a natural amphitheater. Both accounts in Luke and Matthew contain strong admonitions about what happens to people who are not right with God. …