WORD ALIVE
A parish priest happened to meet one of his parishioners in a mall and said, “Johnny, I haven't seen you in church for a long time. What happened?”
“Father, I've stopped going to church. There are a lot of hypocrites there.”
Whereupon, the priest smiled and said: “Well, there's always room for one more…hypocrite.”
If one goes to church only when all are sinless, nobody would ever go to church anymore.
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As somebody said, “The Church is an institution of sinners.” Apart from having a self-righteous or “holier-than-thou” attitude, do not be rash in judging others.
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Remember the teaching of Jesus in today’s gospel: “How can you say, ‘brother, let me remove the speck of your eye, yet cannot see because there is a log in your own eye? You hypocrite! First remove the log out of your own eye, and then you will be able to see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye’” (Luke 6,42).
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Jesus understands our human nature very well. He recognizes our weaknesses. He knows fully well that no one with authority or responsibility, he be a pope, a president, parent or priest, is perfect.
In his unfathomable mercy, God will always forgive us. However, he expects of us to reform and make reparation. This was shown when Jesus had forgiven the woman who was condemned for committing adultery. “I don’t condemn you,” Jesus said,” but don’t sin again.”
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Another lesson we can learn from Jesus’ teaching today is for those who are vested with leadership and responsibility. They must strive to show good example and be credible in order to command respect.
For instance, many people are scandalized when they find out that a political candidate did not pay his income taxes.
Even Jesus Christ, when questioned about paying taxes, had ordered Peter to go and find money “to pay tax for himself and Peter” (Matt. 17,25).
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Spiritual blindness can afflict anybody. It may be a husband or a wife justifying his or her fault, a political aspirant or a manager who faults everybody but not himself.
What’s worst is that he does not know or does not want to know that he’s sick at all. When that happens, his or her sickness is the most incurable.
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Thoughts to ponder. Lord, help us realize that it is better to reach out a helping hand than to point a critical finger.
One more thing, even if the failing or wrong doing is true, the Christian attitude is not to criticize harshly. And this is difficult especially the person is an enemy. Be that as it may, let’s not put down a sinner but rather sympathize with him and pray for him.
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Why oh why...is the man who invests all your money called a broker?
Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called ‘rush hour’? Why is it that doctors call what they do ‘practice’? If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport ‘terminal’?
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There are two kinds of people in the world. There are those who wake up in the morning and say, “Good morning, Lord,” and there are those who say, “Good Lord, it's morning.”
One praises the Lord, the other grumbles. Optimist vs pessimist.
A pessimist’s blood type is always B-negative.
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