8th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Spiritual Mentoring

The gospel of this Sunday speaks about mentorship. The metaphor used is that of a blind person guiding another blind person. It needs no intellectual jugglery to identify that Jesus is not speaking of physical blindness. Eyes are telling metaphors of vision rather than sight. People are to be led by vision, not by sight. Vision is foresight about the culmination of a journey or a process. If a leader does not have a vision of the destination, both the leader and the followers will wander, not knowing the purpose and the end of their journey or the process

After speaking on complete blindness, Jesus speaks of selective blindness. The situation is characterized by one’s inability to spot the lack of vision in others while s/he her-/himself is running without vision at a greater proportion. Interestingly there are some anatomical parallels to the condition in our eyes. At the center of the retina of our eyes is a blind spot. It paradoxically signifies that at the heart of our vision could be a blind spot, or where we believe to see clearly; we might be carrying our inherent inability to see! What we see is highly conditioned by our own blind spots. What we visualize are also highly conditioned by our conceptual blind spots. Identifying one’s blind spots is essential before we look into the blind spots of others. Not accepting one’s own blind spots can lead to an incomplete vision of oneself and a distorted vision of others. Leadership that does not accept one’s own vulnerabilities is not likely to go far.

Selective blindness is a psychological defense mechanism called projection. One is not able to see the plank in one’s own eyes while noticing the speck in the other’s eye. It is an unconscious or semiconscious compulsion to project one’s own vices on others. In that act, one gets a temporary sense of security of being superior to the other. An unconscious reasoning rules this behavior by devaluing the other, which one believes increases one’s own value in the public gaze. Unfortunately, the behavior can lead to regressive recursion. The method for value appreciation of the self is to add values to one’s own reasoning and visions.

Jesus gives a supreme rule for identifying a good mentor. Look at the fruits of the tree. Tree of good fruits and rotten fruits is a metaphor to evaluate mentors if they live according to the Word of God or not. One needs to evaluate mentors based on conformity of their lives to the Word they preach, not by their designations. Jesus explains that plant that gives poisonous fruits cannot produce sweet apples one day. We are familiar with the difficulty in approaching plants that bear good fruits. The dragon fruit creeper is a bit thorny and difficult to reach. But it does have very delicious fruits. There are also good-looking trees that produce poisonous fruits! Jesus had once cursed a tree (very symbolically) for not giving the fruits that it was expected to bear. The tree was symbolic of the unproductive people of God, Israel. The metaphor then refers to watching the leaders’ actions or behavior before one decides to follow them.

Blessed are those mentored by leaders who have seen the heart of God, the heart of the Good Shepherd. Shepherding is the term that Jesus uses for mentoring. The Lord is our shepherd, a mentor par excellence.

We are not always followers but mentors ourselves. It is important to confront our own blind spots, our vulnerabilities and find ways to overcome our blind spots. Our body has a unique binary mechanism to overcome blind spots. One eye covers for the blind spot of the other eye and swaps information at the nerve junction called the optic chiasm. One ear covers for the reception shortage of the other ear and swaps information. Unless mentors are closely connected with our mentor binary and swap information, the Word of God, we are likely to become blind guides leading the blind. Devoted accompaniment with the Word of God will cover for our short-sightedness and blind spots.