THE BEAM IN YOUR OWN EYE

TWELFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

THE BEAM IN YOUR OWN EYE

Introduction

      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.

Opening 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.

Reading 1:  Gen 12:1-9;

The LORD said to Abram: Go forth from your land, your relatives, and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the families of the earth will find blessing in you.  Abram went as the LORD directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai, his brother’s son Lot, all the possessions that they had accumulated, and the persons they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land as far as the sacred place at Shechem, by the oak of Moreh. The Canaanites were then in the land.

The LORD appeared to Abram and said: To your descendants I will give this land. So Abram built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him.  From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel, pitching his tent with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. He built an altar there to the LORD and invoked the LORD by name. Then Abram journeyed on by stages to the Negeb.

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 33:12-13, 18-19, 20 and 22

R: Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,

the people chosen as his inheritance.

From heaven the LORD looks down

and observes the children of Adam,

R: Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon those who fear him,

upon those who count on his mercy,

To deliver their soul from death,

and to keep them alive through famine.

R: Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

Our soul waits for the LORD,

he is our help and shield.

R: Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

May your mercy, LORD, be upon us;

as we put our hope in you.

R: Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

Alleluia: Heb 4:12

Alleluia, alleluia

The word of God is living and effective, able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.

Alleluia, alleluia

Gospel: Mt 7:1-5

“Stop judging that you may not be judged.  For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.  Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove that splinter from your eye,’ while the wooden beam is in your eye? You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.

Intentions

–                   Lord, do not allow us to take pleasure in judging people, but like you, in pardoning them, we pray:

–                   Lord, let our faith be an act of trust that we are in your hands, you want our happiness and you know where you lead us, we pray:

–                   That the awareness of our own shortcomings may dispose us to put aside our irritation at the mistakes of others, we pray:

Prayer over the Gifts

Generous Father,
you give us your good gifts without measure,
for you are our Father.
Accept in these offerings of bread and wine
our willingness to learn from your Son
to love one another without measure,
to learn to understand one another
and to go together the ways of peace
of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Prayer after Communion

Lord God, our Father,
your Son came into the world
not to condemn it but to save it.
For this he gives himself to us
here in this Eucharistic Celebration.
Let us share in his attitude.
Make us look into our own hearts
and learn to see in our neighbor,
behind their faults and failures,
the face of him who came
to forgive and to fill us with his life,
Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Blessing

“Do not judge and you will not be judged.” The tendency among us is so strong and persistent that it is very difficult to eradicate. May God bless you to make you more deeply Christian, so that he can judge you more mildly: the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Commentary

“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” - Mother Teresa
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.