Before you condemn others, look inward

1 Tim. 1:1-2.12-14, Lk. 6:39-42. Our limited insight into each other makes it dangerous to make judgements about others. It can be tempting to think that we see clearly whereas others are blind, such that it becomes so easy for us to take note of the minute details of people's wrong but can never remember anything good about them. In today's first reading, Paul begins by admitting that he had been misinformed and acted according to that misinformation in persecuting the early members of the Christian community, but God helped him to clearly see his sinful ways and appointed him to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to others. Paul relates how he had practiced a false vision of faith, filled with misconceptions. In his desire to be righteous, he persecuted those who were following the 'Truth'. Thanks to the grace of God, Paul was given the opportunity to see the blindness of his ways as Jesus Himself appeared to Paul, on the road to Damascus.

After his period of blindness, Paul not only came to the 'Truth', but because he had been such an enemy of the 'Truth', he was commissioned to preach the compassion and forgiveness of God to others. His personal experience of receiving pardon and peace from Jesus made him a fitting messenger of God’s mercy to others. In today's Gospel, Jesus indicates that we are blind to some degree and that it is often a case of the blind leading the blind rather than the enlightened leading the blind. Changing the metaphor somewhat, Jesus gives us the comic image of someone trying to take a "splinter out of someone else’s eye" while being oblivious to the "plank in one's own eye." Taking the "plank out of our own eye" means being more attentive to our own failings than to those of others. Often we do not see clearly enough to understand what is really going on in the other, and, therefore, we need to be slow to judge and to condemn. God, who sees clearly into every heart, is compassionate and merciful to all, even the unworthy. One can become arrogant and rigidly certain of one’s views–like those autocratics who once repressed heresy with violence, on the grounds that error has no rights. Each of us needs the wisdom of others to balance our own special insights and strengths. We need the wisdom of others to keep us united and to be effective at the service of the Lord.

May the Lord help us by His grace to appreciate the love of others and avoid every form of negativity! Amen!! Good morning and have a wonderful day!!!