THE BEAM IN YOUR OWN EYE

June 21, Monday

 

TWELFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

      A vague promise was all that Abraham had to go by when he followed the call of an unknown God: a land to be possessed not by himself but by his descendants, a numerous people to be born from him though he was seventy-five, and his name that would be a blessing among the nations – but long after his death. For nothing more concrete, he had to leave his highly civilized country, his relatives, his father’s house, his possessions. He had literally by faith alone, to jump with both feet into an uncertain future. He accepted to be completely uprooted. Can our faith compare to his? Do we accept to be uprooted? Do we live in hope amidst uncertainty?

      For people who walk side-by-side with the Lord, there is no room for superiority complexes that look down on the people around us to condemn them. We have all the same calling in Christ. Do we not often judge and condemn in others that which, consciously or unconsciously, we condemn in ourselves? At times, we even secretly rejoice that our brother or sister suffers from the same shortcoming to a greater extent than we do. If we apply the law to others, God will measure us with the same severity of the law. Let us look into ourselves and remove the beam from our own eyes before we discover the splinter in the eyes of others.

 

First Reading: Genesis 12:1-9

God told Abram: “Leave your country, your family, and your father’s home for a land that I will show you.

I’ll make you a great nation
        and bless you.
    I’ll make you famous;
        you’ll be a blessing.
    I’ll bless those who bless you;
        those who curse you I’ll curse.
    All the families of the Earth
        will be blessed through you.”

So Abram left just as God said, and Lot left with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot with him, along with all the possessions and people they had gotten in Haran, and set out for the land of Canaan and arrived safe and sound.

Abram passed through the country as far as Shechem and the Oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites occupied the land.

God appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your children.” Abram built an altar at the place God had appeared to him.

He moved on from there to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent between Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. He built an altar there and prayed to God.

Abram kept moving, steadily making his way south, to the Negev.

 

Gospel: Matthew 7:1-5

A Simple Guide for Behavior

 “Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults— unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. 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 whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.

 

Prayer

Lord our God,
we are people who have not yet seen
what you have prepared for us,
yet, who have to take you on your word
and to walk forward in faith and hope.
Give us faith Lord, a deep faith
that asks for no other certainty
than that you know where you lead us
and that all is well and secure
because you are our God and Father,
who loves us, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

Reflection:

Judgemental on someone, you become so obsessed with that person

Pope Francis gives a reflection of the theme of not to judge others and says that “a person who judges always gets it wrong, becomes confused, and is defeated. Because, One who judges puts himself in the place of God, who is the only judge. Taking the place of God means he is taking the wrong place! Pope advised us to defend others and avoid judging them.
And Jesus defined those who act as judges as hypocrites. Believing that he has the authority to judge everything-people, life, everything- he also assumes that he has the capacity to condemn. When God judges, he takes time and he waits, but when we humans judge, we act hastily.
The Pope further clarified that when you are judgemental on someone, you become so obsessed with that person — sometimes losing sleep over that “speck” in the eyes of the other. That’s why such people have plenty to complain about – all those complains are about “that speck” and they believe they are doing a favour by helping to remove that speck. But the tragedy is, that they are unaware of the log they have in their own eye and they get confused. In this way, one who judges is a person who “confuses reality”.
One who judges “becomes defeated” says Pope Francis. They cannot but be defeated because the same measure will be used to judge them, as Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew. Who is the loser? “The one who is judged by the same measure by which he judges” is the loser.
Defeat goes even further, because one who judges always makes accusations. Jesus gives the example of ‘the speck in your eye’ — there’s an accusation. In the Bible the accuser is called devil, Satan. In fact, Jesus never accuses but, on the contrary, he defends. He is the first Paraclete. Then he invites the second, the Holy Spirit, to us. Jesus is the defender: he is before the Father to defend us against accusations.
If we want to go on Jesus’ path, more than the path of the accuser, we must be defenders of others. Jesus advised us to defend those who are subject to “something bad”. Do not complain and do not gossip, instead defend the accused. Because, gossips and complaints are forms of judging.
The One who judges, is an imitator of the prince of this world, who always goes against people to accuse them before the Father. Lord, grant us the grace to imitate Jesus the intercessor, defender and lawyer for us and for others.

 

Video available on Youtube: Judgemental on someone, you become so obsessed with that person