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Gospel: Luke 6:39-45
Jesus told his disciples a parable,
“Can a blind person guide a blind person?
Will not both fall into a pit?
No disciple is superior to the teacher;
but when fully trained,
every disciple will be like his teacher.
Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye,
but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?
How can you say to your brother,
‘Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,’
when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye?
You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first;
then you will see clearly
to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.
“A good tree does not bear rotten fruit,
nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit.
For every tree is known by its own fruit.
For people do not pick figs from thornbushes,
nor do they gather grapes from brambles.
A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good,
but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil;
for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Four monks took a vow of silence.
One day, while they were walking together down a dusty road, one monk stubbed his toe on a rock and cried out, “OUCH!”
A second monk turned to him and said, “You fool! You just broke your vow of silence!”
A third monk turned to him and said, “Now you’re the fool! You just broke your vow of silence by telling him that he broke his!”
The fourth monk stopped, smiled, and said, “I’m the only one who didn’t.”
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Jesus uses the same type of humor in today’s Gospel by poking fun at our pride. “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?” he says.
Sight is a curious thing.
Eyes allow us to appreciate the beauty of God’s creation – the glow of sunrise, the twinkle of the stars at night, the blue of water, the face of our beloved. But it can also be misused to judge and criticize the imperfections of other people without noticing our own.
This is the irony of the eye.
It cannot see itself. Nor can it look inward. Eyes can only look outward, allowing us to see one of two possibilities: beauty or imperfection.
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No one is perfect.
“All have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God,” Saint Paul says. Meaning, sometimes it is right and necessary to correct a friend, a neighbor, or a colleague who has done wrong.
But before criticizing someone else, the Lord commands us to take a hard look within, making sure that we are not guilty of the same offense – or a greater one – lest we be hypocrites.
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The Gospels provide us with great examples of hypocrisy. Consider the woman caught in adultery. She was guilty of one obvious and serious sin.
Meanwhile, her accusers who dragged her outside of someone’s home, laying her at the feet of Jesus, were guilty of at least two sins.
First, hypocrisy. These brutish men bore stones in their hands, poised to stone this woman to death, while they themselves were sinners!
Secondly, they might’ve been guilty of the very same offense. Remember when Jesus kneels down and begins doodling in the sand. Some say he was writing an account of these men’s sins.
Perhaps some of them also committed adultery with this woman in their hearts, which is why Jesus says, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
One by one, each drops his stone and walks away frustrated.
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It’s a fascinating truth, but we can give a thousand excuses why we made a particular mistake – I was weak; tired; lonely; stressed; frustrated; at wit’s end!
But we can fail to extend that same charity towards others.
When we make a mistake, we focus on the reason why. But when it’s someone else, we dwell on the offense.
This does not mean that we should be silent in the face of sin. But we should be gentle when correcting others. Just as you must be gentle when touching the human eye, so be gentle when correcting the faults of another.
Words wield power.
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Growing up, I was taught if someone insulted me, I was not to resort to hitting them. Instead, I should say, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”
We all know that isn’t true.
A hard blow from a stick can make our body ache for days, even weeks. But the body heals. A well targeted insult – or even fraternal correction done improperly – can hurt for years.
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What are some of the splinters we notice in our neighbor’s eye?
And what about the wooden beam in our own?
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The next time we notice a splinter in our neighbor’s eye, think of those four monks.
Although they failed to keep their vow of silence perfectly, they remind us, if you can’t say something nice, it’s better not to say anything at all.
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Image credits: (1) Good News Unlimited (2) Parsi Times (3) Domenico Fetti, Parable of the Mote and Beam