EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR C

Ecclesiasticus 27 :4-7
Psalm 91:2-3.13-16
1Corinthians 15:54-58
Luke 6:39-45

THE LOG IN MY EYE

Last Sunday before the season of Lent, today’s readings invite us to look into our hearts, check what we have stored therein, and fill them with good thoughts and thanksgiving. In the gospel, St Luke reports three short parables of Jesus, namely that of a blind man leading another blind man, that of the speck and the log in the eye, and that of the tree that is recognized through its fruits (Luke 6:39-45).

The first reading is a good illustration of the third parable. According to Ben Sirach, man’s words reveal his personality. Thus, we should not praise or judge a person without listening to him in the first place.

The second parable is not without importance. In effect, we like zooming into the weaknesses, mistakes, sins and shortcomings of others without acknowledging ours. We gossip about others. We expose their nakedness. We put blame on others. We judge and condemn them. We are quick to pronounce sentence on them. In short, we notice the speck in others’ eyes, and do not notice that we have a log in ours. As a result we usually try to take the speck out of another’s eye. We want to correct others. We want to change others.

We are simply hypocrites. We should take the log out of our own eye first. Then we will see clear so as to help the other with his speck. We should change ourselves first. This demands self-discipline and self mastery. We need courage and endurance, and never give up working on ourselves. Thus, after he has ended his exposé on the resurrection, St Paul exhorts us saying: “Never give in then, my dear brethren, never admit defeat; keep on working at the Lord’s work always, knowing that, in the Lord, you cannot be laboring in vain”. May the Lord help us identify our own shortcomings, mistakes and work on them. 

Amen.