8th Sunday of Year C
✠ A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke 6:39-42
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? You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your own 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”.
1. We are invited today by the readings to concentrate more on our own faults than busying ourselves with other people’s faults. When people pay more attention to other people’s weaknesses, they end up not improving themselves. The history of the fall ancient Roman empire shows that focusing on external wars made Rome to labour in vain because the internal governance of the empire was neglected, and the fall became easy in 476 AD. The first reading ( Sirach 27:5-8) tells us that we can discern the quality of a person only by the content of his words. It is when a man speaks that we enter into his thoughts. So, people should only be evaluated based on their speech. But what’s the point of spending one’s time getting to know others if one does not know oneself? The first reading serves as an introduction and a contrast to the gospel.
2. The gospel, therefore, invites us to first perfect ourselves before looking for the shortcomings of others. If we commit to scrutinizing others, we end up judging, criticizing, and condemning them. There is a tendency among people to easily class others as bad. I read a story of a man who was to travel by ship and got to know that he would be sharing the cabin with another traveller. Without even taking the time to know the other, he concluded that he was a thief. So the man went to the ship’s customer service department and demanded that his golden watch and other valuables be kept for him, claiming he didn’t trust his cabin mate. The service agreed to render the service while at the same time telling him that his companion had already done the same thing. Many people behave like these men. They think that others are bad while they are the righteous ones. This attitude of viewing others as evil is what Jesus condemns in today’s Gospel. Jesus finds men to be hypocrites who take an interest in the affairs of others without making an effort to improve their own. What we criticize in others is often less serious than what we do ourselves. The paradox is that when we focus on others, we no longer see our own faults. But, “Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye when you do not notice the beam that is in your eye? How can you say to your brother: Let me remove the speck that is in your eye when you cannot see the beam that is in yours?” Jesus’ point is that each of us has faults and that each person must work at being a better person rather than focus on the faults of others. Often, the things that annoy us in others are also the same faults that inhabit us (see the episode of the woman caught in adultery, Jn 8:3-11), but we are always ready to offer explanations for our shortcomings but not for those of others.
3. One way of focusing on other people’s faults is discussing their faults. This is a temptation that awaits us all, and it is easy to fall into it, but that is precisely what Jesus does not want in his disciples. Instead of taking pleasure in speaking or listening, we must rather defend the absent. For example, when told that such a person did such things, instead of showing interest in hearing more, simply say that you do not believe what you are told and go further to defend the person. We can also point out the good qualities of the person we know that the other seems to ignore. When we love a person, we are always ready to excuse his faults. At the base of all criticism is lack of love.
4. Moreover, when we judge someone, we judge him/her from our point of view without knowing what the person is going through. I read the story of a schoolboy who was often dirty, late, and distracted during class. His teacher, seeing this, criticized him in front of the others, and the others criticized him too. Nobody asked him for an explanation, but this guy had a single mother who was suffering from terminal cancer, which means that the young boy had no one to take care of him properly. If we don’t make the effort to understand others, we always end up condemning them. So, instead of criticizing, you have to love and approach the one you tend to criticize.
5. Try not to get upset by the faults you find in others, but rather look for their goodness and encourage them to develop them further. The Greek philosopher Socrates said that “God gave us two ears and two eyes and only one mouth and one tongue so that we would speak twice less than we see or hear.” Do not be among those who speak more than they see or hear. Work hard on perfecting yourself so that you would not have laboured in vain (1Cor15:54-58).
©Vitalis Anaehobi
02/03/25
