EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
First Reading • Sirach 27. 4-7
Psalm 92
Second Reading • 1 Corinthians 15.54-58
Gospel • Luke 6.39-45
Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of India’s independence movement, was known for his wisdom and integrity. One day, a mother brought her young son to Gandhi and asked, “Please tell my son to stop eating sugar. It’s harming his health, but he won’t listen to me.”
Gandhi listened carefully and then told her, “Bring him back in two weeks.”
The woman was confused but did as he asked. Two weeks later, she returned with her son. This time, Gandhi looked at the boy and gently said, “Stop eating sugar. It’s not good for you.”
The mother was grateful but puzzled. She asked, “Why didn’t you just say that two weeks ago?”
Gandhi smiled and replied, “Because two weeks ago, I was eating sugar myself. I had to stop before I could tell him to stop.”
In today’s gospel, Jesus warns us about pointing out the faults of others while ignoring our own.
Has anyone ever asked you for advice, but then decided not to take it? It might have seemed as clear as day to you what they needed to do, but they turned around and decided to do something else.
From your perspective, their choice might have made no sense or made their problems even worse. But they went ahead and did it anyway, ignoring what you had to say.
There are many reasons why people ask for advice but don’t take it. No matter how well we might know the person and their situation, there are always some aspects of their lives and personality that are hidden from us. They might have motivations like trying to please their parents or trying to avoid conflict with a neighbor that we are unaware of.
That is why Jesus cautions us in today’s gospel about judging others. People are not always what they seem. There’s a lot more going on under the surface than we can see.
It might seem to us that a person’s behavior is irrational and maybe even sinful. From their perspective, their behaviors might be perfectly reasonable. Those reasons just might not be clear to us.
The fact is that we are always looking at people through the lens of our own experience. We judge them based on our own values and motivations.
We really want them to do what’s best for us, not what’s best for them.
That is why Jesus tells us that we have to remove the log from our own eyes before we can help others take the speck out of theirs. That is what Mahatma Gandhi did before advising the boy. We cannot help others if our judgement is clouded by selfishness and our own petty motivations and fears.
What are some ways that we can go about doing that hard work of taking the log out of our eyes so that we can see clearly to help others? It begins with prayer. Ask God to help you take that log out.
Like any major surgery, we can’t do it on our own. We need help. And no one knows our hearts better than God. The more we spend time in silence in His presence, the more clearly, we will be able to see the reality within us and the reality all around us.
Another important step we need to take is to make a daily examination of conscience. It is simply a matter of taking a few minutes, usually at the end of the day, to review what choices we made. Spending time every day doing that will help us to understand which of our actions were motivated out of a true desire to help others and which were motivated out of purely selfish reasons.
Finally, there is no better way to have the log in our eye removed than to go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. There we openly admit that we are human beings whose hearts need healing.
That encounter with the infinite mercy of God reassures us that we are loved unconditionally, even with all our hidden fears and selfish motivations. We will see ourselves more clearly, and be able to help others out of sincere love for them.
Jesus tells us that every tree is known by its fruit. He wants us to bear good fruit by rooting out our hidden fears and selfish motivations. He wants to make our hearts good so that our words and actions also may be good.
To do that, we have to work constantly to bring those hidden fears and motivations into the light so that God can heal them. We won’t be perfect at it. But we will become more compassionate, less judgmental people in the process. And we will be better able to truly help others.
