Reflection for Friday 23rd Week in Ordinary Time

By


Fr. Aloysius Santiago sdb
Rector and Parish Priest
Don Bosco Shrine
Lingarajapuram, Bangalore

Today's WORD of GOD

Luke 6:42

How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.


Today's Reflection

Respect & Service

Our Scriptures for Today are mainly about Leadership but in Some Ways They Apply to All Human Relationships. We are Meant to Interact with One Another, Not as Superior-to-Inferior but as Equals in GOD'S Family, Each Recognizing the Gifts of the Other. Sometimes Differing View or Talents can Lead to Conflicts & Helpful Direction is Necessary. What Paul Says of Himself in 1st Timothy, that He was Appointed to the Service of GOD, Applies to Each of Us. He Admits that He Realised His Vocation only after Years when He “Acted Ignorantly in Unbelief.” We too can Act from Ignorance or Misguided Zeal & so Treat Others Arrogantly. But We have also, like Paul, Received the Grace of GOD in Full Measure. If Grace could make such a Change in Paul’s Life, It can Do the Same for Us.

It is Good to Admire & Learn from the Gifts of Other People. One can become Arrogant & too Rigidly certain of One’s Views–like Those Autocratics who once Repressed Hersey with Violence, on the Grounds that Error has Not Rights.

Dogmatists Need to Consider whether They are Not like a Blind Man trying to Guide Another Blind Person. Both will Fall into the Pit, both Teacher & Student. We Need the Wisdom of Others to Keep Us United, at the Service of All, in the Spirit so well Evoked in the Recent Words & Gestures of Pope Francis, as He Calls for Renewed Fraternity & Inclusiveness in Our CHURCH.

What We might Fail to See

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. JESUS Seems to Indicate that We are All Blind to Some Degree & 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 His or Her Own Eye. Taking the Plank Out of Our Own Eye means Being More Attentive to Our Own Failings than to Those of Others. GOD, who Sees Clearly into Every heart, is Compassionate & Merciful to All, even the Unworthy. We are Asked to Try 2b Merciful & Compassionate like That.

Good Morning

GOD Bless Us All Today