EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
The Splinter in Your Eye
Why is it that practically all of us notice the defects and failures of others, yet we are blind to our own shortcomings? Often we blame in others what we overlook in ourselves. Let us look today at Jesus here among us. Yes, he came to save people from their sins, yet he did not judge and condemn people but attracted them by his open attitude of friendship, appreciation of the good in them and by giving them new chances in life. There is much to learn from him. Let us ask him for his goodness of heart.
First Reading: Sirach 27:4-7
If you don’t hold yourself firm in the fear of the Lord, your house will suffer tremors and edge off its foundations. As sifting flour leaves dust behind, so sifting ideas leave lint of their own. As pottery needs a furnace, so the just need suffering. As fruit trees need pruning, so people’s words need censoring. Hear people out before you praise them; opinions reveal real values. Follow Lady Wisdom and she’ll never be out of sight. Put her justice on like a priestly robe. Dwell with her, and she’ll protect you forever. As birds hang with birds, so truth sticks to those who don’t tell lies.
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:54-58
In the resurrection scheme of things, this has to happen: everything perishable taken off the shelves and replaced by the imperishable, this mortal replaced by the immortal. Then the saying will come true:
Death swallowed by triumphant Life!
Who got the last word, oh, Death?
Oh, Death, who’s afraid of you now?
It was sin that made death so frightening and law-code guilt that gave sin its leverage, its destructive power. But now in a single victorious stroke of Life, all three—sin, guilt, death—are gone, the gift of our Master, Jesus Christ. Thank God!
58 With all this going for us, my dear, dear friends, stand your ground. And don’t hold back. Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort.
Gospel: Luke 6:39-45
He quoted a proverb: “‘Can a blind man guide a blind man?’ Wouldn’t they both end up in the ditch? An apprentice doesn’t lecture the master. The point is to be careful who you follow as your teacher.
“It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you,’ when your own face is distorted by contempt? It’s this I-know-better-than-you mentality again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your own part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.
“You don’t get wormy apples off a healthy tree, nor good apples off a diseased tree. The health of the apple tells the health of the tree. You must begin with your own life-giving lives. It’s who you are, not what you say and do, that counts. Your true being brims over into true words and deeds.
Prayer
Lord, loving Father,
you have given us no blind guide to lead us
but our one Teacher Jesus Christ,
whose slow-learning disciples we are.
He had not come to condemn us
but to forgive and save.
Give us clear eyes to look
into our own hearts and consciences,
but dim them with the shades of love
when we see the faults of those around us.
And may we inspire others by our Christ-like living.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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