Truth is where you find it, and not always where you expect. Remember the old story about a chicken and a pig who wanted to show their gratitude for all the farmer’s care and protection? The chicken decided that, given the limitations placed upon them, the best they could do was to provide the farmer with a delicious ham and eggs breakfast. So the chicken told the pig what she had decided. The pig responded, "For you, a ham and eggs breakfast is a gesture of great generosity, but for me, it is an act of total commitment!"

The truth is that commitment in the religious sense is nothing less than the complete giving of oneself to God. Generosity follows commitment, but commitment comes first. And commitment is the subject of the Gospel for today.

Matthew says that an uncommon coalition of P…