“You hypocrite! Remove the wooden
beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in
your brother’s eye.”
Our Lord was, no doubt, an astute
observer of human nature. Of course He
was – He was, after all, the Son of God and at the same time, human Himself!
But in this morning’s Gospel, he
focuses in on something that I think most of us are guilty of to some extent or
another – judging the faults of others rather than our own. We may be brothers and sisters in Christ, but
aren’t there a lot of sibling rivalries in His family?! Maybe I shouldn’t speak for you, but I know I
sure am guilty of this one! I will often
fail to examine my own behaviors and instead, sit in judgment of the behaviors
of others. And I generally assume that
my opinions are 100% correct and that anyone who disagrees with me must be
sadly mistaken.
Why is that? Why do we humans tend to focus on others’
faults rather than our own? I think,
truth be told, that it’s a defense mechanism.
We subconsciously see ourselves not as superior, but as inferior. We see our outward blemishes and faults and
deep down, we don’t’ think we measure up.
So to prop ourselves up, to feel better about ourselves, we focus not on
ourselves but on others – we compare ourselves to others – and it gives us some
solace, false solace I might add, to focus on the faults and foibles of others.
The problem here is not that we see
ourselves as better or worse than others – or even that we compare ourselves to
others – the problem is that we fail to see ourselves as God sees us. God looks on each of us with indescribable
love, compassion, gentleness, tenderness, and patience. If only we had such love and compassion,
patience and gentleness for ourselves!
Then we wouldn’t find the need to compare ourselves with others, or to
be concerned with others. We would want
to return that love, and out of love of God we would, with His grace, work to
remove the splinters in our eyes.
And then we couldn’t help but look
upon our sisters and brothers, our fellow humanity, with love and compassion,
gentleness, tenderness and patience.
Imagine a world where, rather than to sit in judgment of each other, we
treated each other only with patience and love!
That world starts with you and me.
By Christ’s grace, and nourished by His Body and Blood, may you and I
begin to see ourselves, and our brothers and sisters, in the same light, and
with the same love and compassion, as our Lord Himself.
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