
Gregory the Great
Catena Aurea · Matthäusevangelium 23
Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weighter matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
(Mor. i. 15.) Or otherwise; The gnat stings while it hums; the camel bows its back to receive its load. The Jews then strained off the gnat, when they prayed to have the seditious robber released to them; and they swallowed the camel, when they sought with shouts the death of Him who had voluntarily taken on Him the burden of our mortality.