“Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own…? A good person out of the store of goodness in her/his heart produces good.” Luke 6: 39-45
Today’s first reading is from the Book of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus). Its author, Ben Sirah, was a wise man who lived a couple of hundred years before the birth of Jesus, and there is a home-spun appeal about his style of writing. In today’s reading, he makes comments about how to gauge the integrity or genuineness of a person’s life: “Just listen carefully” he says, “to what tumbles out of his/her mouth. That will give you a good guide to that person’s character. Just as the quality of an orchard is judged by the juiciness of its fruit, so the measure of our decency is the words we utter about the people we encounter and the issues on which we expatiate”.
One of the fascinating aspects of Ben Sirah’s comments on human behaviour is that he seemed to understand what modern psychologists have called projection. As he observed and reflected on the kind of criticism that outspoken people directed at those with whom they found fault, he realised that their criticisms invariably revealed their own prominent faults and failings. In the concluding verse of today’s reading, he wisely advised his audience to refrain from judging others before taking time to listen carefully to what they have to say. The other side of that coin is that we can all be inclined to commend in others good qualities which we believe we have acquired ourselves.
Of interest is the fact that, in today’s gospel-reading, the words from Jesus amount to a succession of wise sayings similar to the kind of things spoken to us by people such as our grandparents and other significant people in our youth. We remember these words because they came to us from elders we admired and respected and contributed to developing in us the values by which we try to live.
Perhaps another way of looking at Jesus’ five wisdom statements in today’s gospel-reading is to view them as a summary of the words he directed to his disciples, as recounted by Luke in the readings of the last two Sundays. At the end of last Sunday’s gospel-reading, Luke attributed to Jesus the words: “Be merciful/compassionate, just as your Father is merciful/compassionate. Don’t judge, and you will not be judged yourselves; don’t condemn, and you will not be condemned yourselves; grant pardon, and you will be pardoned” (Luke 6: 36-37).
A summary statement of those admonitions is contained in today’s brief parable of the blind man who was rash enough to set about guiding another blind man. Could this be a veiled reference by Jesus to the religious leaders of his day who, ignorant of their own need of mercy and compassion, were incapable of reaching out with mercy and compassion to those for whom they had a duty of care. In fact, anyone who is very clearly blinded to the needs of others will have no capacity to even begin thinking of reaching out to them. Only those who have eyes of compassion will be able to find within themselves creative ways of helping others to grow and flourish.
Taken as a whole, today’s gospel-reading is a challenge from Jesus, to all of us who would be his disciples, to invest ourselves in reflecting on our lives, asking ourselves just what is the quality of the fruit we are producing. It is a reminder to us to put the focus on ourselves rather than giving our attention to criticising the lives of those around us.
Today’s second reading, from the First letter to the Corinthians, is the fourth and last in succession from Paul’s dissertation of Jesus’ resurrection, in which he has insisted that we, who have been baptised in Christ, will participate in his bodily resurrection. Acknowledging our tendency to point to the faults in others, to search for their peccadillos as we ignore our own more serious failings, is to admit to our own sinfulness, and in so doing, to die to ourselves. But in dying to ourselves, Paul insists that we open ourselves to be caught up in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The journey to conversion of heart begins with the admission that we stand in need of the compassion and mercy of God. Only then will we begin to reflect to others something of the mercy and compassion of God.
