March 2, 2025
Eighth Sunday in
Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 84
Reading I
When a sieve is shaken, the husks appear;
so do one’s faults when one speaks.
As the test of what the potter molds is in the furnace,
so in tribulation is the test of the just.
The fruit of a tree shows the care it has had;
so too does one’s speech disclose the bent of one’s mind.
Praise no one before he speaks,
for it is then that people are tested.
Responsorial Psalm
R (cf. 2a) Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
to sing
praise to your name, Most High,
To proclaim your kindness at dawn
and your
faithfulness throughout the night.
R Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
The just one shall flourish like the palm tree,
like a cedar
of Lebanon shall he grow.
They that are planted in the house of the LORD
shall
flourish in the courts of our God.
R Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
They shall bear fruit even in old age;
vigorous and
sturdy shall they be,
Declaring how just is the LORD,
my rock, in
whom there is no wrong.
R Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
Reading II
Brothers and sisters:
When this which is corruptible clothes itself with incorruptibility
and this which is mortal clothes itself with immortality,
then the word that is written shall come about:
Death
is swallowed up in victory.
Where,
O death, is your victory?
Where,
O death, is your sting?
The sting of death is sin,
and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God who gives us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters,
be firm, steadfast, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord,
knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Shine like lights in the world
as you hold on to the word of life.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
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.”
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030225.cfm
Commentary on Sirach
27:5-8; 1 Corinthians 15:54-58; Luke 6:39-45
Today we have the continuation of Luke’s Sermon on the Plain
(not the Mount). Last Sunday’s Gospel told us not to judge or we would be
judged ourselves. Does this mean that we are never to criticise other people?
‘Criticise’ comes from Greek, krino, meaning “to make a rational
judgment”. So we speak of a film or drama ‘critic’ who may indeed tear a
production to pieces or, on the other hand, may praise it to the skies, give it
five stars and ‘two thumbs up’.
What is being forbidden by Jesus is not judgment as such,
but negative, destructive judgment. There are times when we are expected to
give constructive, helpful criticism.
We are often free with the first and slow with the second
(e.g. by giving the excuse that we are not qualified). We cannot pass judgment
unless we have some vision and understanding. Jesus asks us:
Can a blind person guide a blind person?
How can the blind, those without understanding, presume to
give leadership to others who are blind? The result is inevitable:
Will not both fall into a pit?
In life, it is not at all unusual to hear people talk with
great authority on things of which they know very little, e.g. complex policies
and problems. People who never open a Bible, seldom go to church, are not
involved in its activities or not even Christians, frequently have no
hesitation in saying what is wrong with the Church. This does not mean that the
Church has no faults. Nor does it mean that the Church’s weaknesses should not
be highlighted. It does mean that one should speak from genuine knowledge and
accurate data and to the people who can do something about it. The same applies
to everything else we like to pass judgment on.
Following Jesus’ example
Jesus says:
A disciple is not above the teacher…
This is to say that our judgements should be like those of
Jesus. But he also says:
…every disciple who is fully qualified will be like the
teacher.
He “will be like the teacher” in judging to save and help,
not to knock down and destroy. If we are to avoid blindness we need to walk in
the footsteps of people who can see. We need to acknowledge our own blindness,
our blind spots, our myopia, our astigmatism of prejudice and lack of
objectivity.
It is not much use prefacing some solemn judgement on the
Church, for instance, with “When I was in grade school, I was always taught by
Sister Imelda that…” What we learnt in grade school or high school is likely
not enough so many years later when the Church itself has changed in so many
ways and we ourselves have changed. But most of us tend to be both perspicacious
and blind—we can see the slightest fault in others while being totally
oblivious to much greater faults in ourselves.
Some of us spend large parts of our lunch breaks and
recreation times “gossiping”. This consists mainly of saying what is wrong with
other people (present company excepted—until present company goes away). Do we
ever feel slightly nervous leaving a party or a group that has been involved in
extensive gossiping about peers or colleagues? As soon as we walk out the door
they may start saying the same things about me that I was saying about other
absent people. On the other hand, if a subject of criticism walks into the
room, he or she is likely to be greeted like a long-lost friend, as if they
were the most wonderful people in the world.
Why do we do so much of this kind of thing? Do we really
enjoy it? Do we feel good about it afterwards? Do we believe that if only other people
changed—the boss, some colleagues, parents, children—life would be wonderful?
Pre-emptive strikes
In fact, I think much of our criticism is a form of self-defence, a kind of
pre-emptive strike. We feel inadequate and insecure and try to even things out
by pulling down people we feel are better than us. No wonder Jesus calls us
‘hypocrites’. This word, from the Greek hypocrites, was used to
refer to a stage actor. When I go on like this I am playing a role in which I
am the tragic, misunderstood hero or heroine, and the rest are out to get me.
It is usually quite a false and misleading picture of the reality.
The Greek actor wore a mask to indicate the role he was
playing (in ancient Greece, all the actors were male). We spend a lot of time
wearing masks to hide from others the real self of whom we are secretly
ashamed. By supposedly ‘exposing’ the weaknesses and wickedness of others, we
give our fragile egos a boost.
But Jesus says that everything depends on the inner person
and not on the outward appearance. Hypocrisy will not long go undetected. No
really good tree can produce bad fruit; and no really bad tree can consistently
produce genuinely good fruit.
“The kiln tests the potter’s vessels”, says today’s First
Reading. Once we open our mouth we reveal ourselves. We are told:
Do not praise anyone before he speaks,
for this is the way people are tested.
When we gossip, we often tell people a lot more about
ourselves than those we are condemning.
Place for criticism
It is important to emphasise that the Gospel is in no way saying we should not
have opinions or that we should not express them. But it is saying the
following:
- We
should avoid having such a high awareness of the shortcomings of others
that we have lost the ability to see and accept our own.
- We
can spend hours talking about what is wrong with other people—superiors,
peers, family members—in their absence, but are not prepared to bring our
grievances for open dialogue with the people concerned. Change will never
take place under such circumstances. And one wonders sometimes if we
really want things to change! Wouldn’t life be extremely dull with nothing
whatsoever to grumble about?
- People
who gossip incessantly suddenly become reluctant and tongue-tied when
asked to evaluate honestly (i.e. both positively and negatively) a
colleague who is being considered for another post. Such an evaluation,
including its negative parts, may be extremely helpful both to the
candidate and the whole organisation. It can avoid the appointment of a
person to a position who is quite unsuitable—and it may happen that I am
the only person aware of the weakness.
- We
live under the illusion that if my boss changes, my spouse changes, my
work or home environment changes, then I will be happy. Why should other
people change just for me?
Let me change
The real solution is for me to change—to behave proactively rather than just
have a knee-jerk reaction every time something touches a sensitive nerve in me.
Let me be in charge of my own life and stop trying to change others. As Fr Tony
de Mello used to say, “When I change, my whole world changes”. And not only
that, when I change, other people are likely to change, but even if they do
not, my attitude towards them will not be the same. We have to make our own
bed; we don’t wait for others to do so. To again quote Fr de Mello, “Attitude
is everything”—my attitude, that is.
I can learn to be totally accepting of reality, and of the
way people are. I can refuse to be intimidated or irritated or resentful. I can
take off my actor’s mask and be fully myself. In the process I can let other
people too be themselves. I am no longer worried about planks in my own eyes or
in others’—what you see is what there is.
I judge myself by the standards of Jesus: a good tree bears
good fruit. And the words describing the fruits of a good tree are full of
warmth, affirmation, encouragement and compassion with now and again some
positive, constructive confrontation and challenging. This is because:
…it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth
speaks.
This sounds like a much better recipe than a life spent in
never-ending griping and sniping.
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Sunday, March 2, 2025
Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
God our Father, You redeem us and make us Your children in
Christ. Look upon us, give us true freedom and bring us to the inheritance You
promised. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and
reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading -
Luke 6: 39-42
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."
Reflection
Today’s Gospel gives us some of the passages of the
discourse which Jesus pronounced on the plain after having spent the night in
prayer (Lk 6: 12) and after He had called the twelve to be His apostles (Lk 6:
13-14). Many of the sayings in this discourse had already been pronounced on
other occasions, but Luke, imitating Matthew, puts them together in this Sermon
on the Plain.
• Luke 6: 39: The
parable of the blind man who guides another blind man. Jesus tells a parable to
the disciples: “Can a blind man guide another blind man? Will not both of them
fall into a hole?” A parable of one line, quite similar to the warnings which,
in Matthew’s Gospel, are addressed to the Pharisees: “Alas for you, blind
guides!” (Mt 23: 16-17, 19, 24, 26) Here in the context of the Gospel of Luke,
this parable is addressed to the animators of the communities who consider themselves the masters of
truth, superior to others and because of this, they are blind guides.
• Luke 6: 40:
Disciple – Master. “The disciple is not greater than the teacher, but the
well-prepared disciple will be like the teacher” Jesus is the Master, not the professor.
The professor in class teaches different subjects but does not live with the
pupils. The Master or Lord does not teach lessons; he lives with the pupils.
His subject matter is himself, his life witness, his way of living the things that
he teaches. Living together with the Master, the Lord has three aspects:
(1) the Master is the model or example to be imitated (cf.
Jn 13: 13-15).
(2) The disciple not only contemplates and imitates, he
commits himself to the same destiny of the Master, with his temptations (Lk 22:
28), his persecution (Mt 10: 24-25), his death (Jn 11: 16);
(3) He not only imitates the model, he not only assumes the
commitment, but arrives at identifying himself with Him: “I live, but it is not
I who live, but Christ lives in me!” (Gal 2: 20). This third aspect is the
mystical dimension of the following of Jesus, fruit of the action of the
Spirit.
• Luke 6: 41-42: The
splinter in the brother’s eye. “Why do you observe the splinter in your
brother’s eye and never notice the great log in your own? How can you say to
your brother: ‘Brother, let me take out that splinter in your eye, when you
cannot see the great log in your own? Hypocrite! Take the log out of your own
eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take out the splinter in
your brother’s eye.” In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew treats the same theme
and explains a bit better the parable of the splinter in the eye. Jesus asks
for a creative attitude which will make us capable of going and encountering
others without judging them, without preconceptions and rationalizing, but
accepting the brother (Mt 7: 1-5). This total openness toward others
considering them as brothers/sisters will arise in us only when we are capable
of relating to God with total trust as His children (Mt 7: 7-11).
Personal Questions
• Splinter and log in the eye. How do I relate with others
at home and in my family, in work and with my colleagues, in community and with
the brothers and sisters?
• Master and disciple. How am I a disciple of Jesus?
Concluding Prayer
Lord, how blessed are those who live in Your house; they shall
praise You continually. Blessed those who find their strength in You, whose
hearts are set on pilgrimage. (Ps 84: 4-5)
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