REFLECTIONS TODAY
The “splinter” denotes any small fault in others while the beam denotes the much greater fault which one overlooks in herself/himself. Jesus uses a graphic hyperbole to express the big inconsistency in correcting others while not seeing one’s own fault. He does not oppose offering correction, but points to the spirit from which this correction springs. When one does the correction but rationalizes away one’s own guilt, it is hypocrisy. It is done in false charity. That person walks around with a log protruding from his eye totally ignorant of his laughable state.
Our human reality is complex. Even if we knew people’s hearts, we could not evaluate a person as if we understood all the genetic and social influences that were involved in what that person had become. We are objects of God’s evaluation, and God evaluates most graciously the meek, who recognize God alone as judge.
GOSPEL • MATTHEW 7:1-5
Jesus said to his disciples: “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.”
SOURCE: “365 Days with the Lord 2021,” ST. PAULS, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; Fax 632-895-7328; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.