Commentary on the Gospel of
Mint, anise, and cumin are kitchen herbs grown in tiny quantities. It was normal to give tithes (10%) on all the main crops, but the Pharisees went to the extreme of measuring out tithes of these insignificant ‘crops’. Meanwhile Jesus said they ignored the far more important matters of “justice, mercy, and good faith…” Thanks again to the Pharisees, we have a perfect model for people who are meticulous about tiny details of the Faith—fasting for exactly sixty minutes before receiving Communion, for example, or muttering the Angelus at midday and at six in the evening—but who cheat at work or give hell to their families.
