Daily Mass Gospel Reflection- Self-Blinding

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 02.27.22 | Aux. Bishop R. Barron

[MurphsLaw]

Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Luke 6:39-45

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus commands us to stop judging others. He asks, “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?”
We are exceptionally good at seeing the fault in others, but we are exceptionally adept at ignoring it in ourselves.

There was a very popular book that came out when I was a teenager. It was called I’m Okay and You’re Okay. It represented the culture of exculpation and feeling-good-about-yourself. Not many years ago, Christina Aguilera crooned, “I am beautiful in every single way and words can’t bring me down.”
Look at so many of the debates today: the attitude that is winning is one of self-invention and self-assertion. Who are you to tell me how to behave?

In all of this, we are fundamentally looking away from our guilt, our fault, our darkness. We are effectively drugging ourselves, dulling the pain of real self-consciousness.
In the process, we turn ourselves into God, pretending to be absolute, flawless, and impervious to criticism. So “remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.”

[MurphsLaw]

+++Jesus told his disciples a
parable,
“Can a blind person guide a blind
person?
Will not both fall into a pit?
No disciple is superior to the teacher;
but when fully trained,
every disciple will be like his teacher.
Why do you notice the splinter in
your brother’s eye,
but do not perceive the wooden beam
in your own?
How can you say to your brother,
‘Brother, let me remove that
splinter in your eye,’
when you do not even notice the
wooden beam in your own eye?
You hypocrite! Remove the wooden
beam from your eye first;
then you will see clearly
to remove the splinter in your
brother’s eye.

“A good tree does not bear rotten fruit,
nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit.
For every tree is known by its own fruit.
For people do not pick figs from
thornbushes,
nor do they gather grapes from
brambles.
A good person out of the store of
goodness in his heart produces good,
but an evil person out of a store of
evil produces evil;
for from the fullness of the heart
the mouth speaks.”+++

[infool7]

My favorite part of today's readings:

Never give in then, my dear brothers,

never admit defeat;

keep on working at the Lord’s work always,

knowing that, in the Lord,

you cannot be laboring in vain.

7

[sauropod]

Bkmk

[PeterPrinciple]

Jesus commands us to stop judging others.

---

That is just plain wrong.

He tells us to hold ourselves to the same standards we judge others. Now what should those standards be?

We need MORE judging/leading/discipling/etc with the right standards.

[PeterPrinciple]

Jesus commands us to stop judging others

---

The interesting part is that the WORLD CAN QUOTE THE ABOVE.

Judge not.

But they don’t know the rest of the verse and the context.

[fidelis]

[MurphsLaw]

Ah yes... Judge away... that's what God wants from us..
Feed the ego.. because of course we are right.. and we have rights!

When you are asked to "remove the plank from your eye", there isn't a sinner who has been born that could ever do so adequately enough.. The Good Lord knows - if or when we remove the plank in our own eye- our desire to judge is then gone as well...
We are blind- and it's only through Christ, and Christ in us, that we can then finally see... and it's not for Judging our neighbor-
but rather something else Bour our nighbor...
The Bishop is correct. He's play 3D Chess here, you're just playing checkers...
Feel the vibe from James:

+++Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.
11 Do not speak evil against one another, brethren. He that speaks evil against a brother or judges his brother,
speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.
12 There is one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy.
But who are you that you judge your neighbor?+++

[PeterPrinciple]

Did you really read and think about my post or just react?

[MurphsLaw]

"God opposes the proud, even when they are right,
and probably, especially so, because they are right "
(Scott Hahn)

[AppyPappy]

There did seem to be some disconnect

This must be an old devotion because judging is now acceptable and even encouraged in church, especially during Covid.