8th Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 27, 2022
/If we take the lessons of Jesus to heart we will be more like him
Luke 6:39–45
And he told them 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.”
Music Meditations
- Open My Eyes, Lord (Jesse Manibusan)
- Lead Me, Lord (John Becker)
- Lead Me, Guide Me (Velma Lewis—a gospel edition)
- Lead Me, Lord (Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir)
Opening Prayer
Prayer of Mary, Queen of Scots:
Keep us, O God, from all pettiness. Let us be large in thought, in word, in deed. Let us be done with fault-finding and leave off all self-seeking. May we put away all pretense and meet each other face-to-face, Without self-pity and without prejudice. May we never be hasty in judgment, always generous. Let us take time for all things, and make us grow calm, serene, and gentle. Teach us to put into action our better impulses, to be straight-forward and unafraid. Grant that we may realize that it is the little things of life that create differences, That in the big things of life we are one. And, Lord, God, let us not forget to be Kind.
Companions for the Journey
This is a short writing from one of the Christian or non-Christian witnesses of our tradition—a person who embodies the theme of the gospel we are studying today. This commentary is from “First Impressions”, a service of the Southern Dominican Province.
This part of Luke is from the “Sermon on the Plain.” It’s similar to Matthew’s “Sermon on the Mount” but, as it is with the Gospels, each writer comes at the story from a different perspective. The passage of time, the growth of the church outside its original Jewish setting and the needs of their own church community, dictated that each evangelist tell the story in a way that would speak to his unique community with its special needs and circumstances.
Luke writes for a church which has already gone through its initial fervor. The earlier concerns of primitive Christianity are no longer present. When Luke wrote the church was a more organized institution. Its members had discovered that Jesus’ return was not as imminent as the earlier disciples thought. It was a church getting accustomed to being around for the foreseeable future. It was therefore a church that needed to be challenged again to live a life of prayer, maintain total commitment to the Lord Jesus, shun reliance on money and live a community life that would be a visible sign to others that Christ was alive.
In today’s passage he is describing what should characterize the community of his followers. Imagine a community of people living the kind of life described in this sermon. Jesus wants an entirely new way of living for his followers. First, Jesus advises that the individual disciples are not to go off teaching the faith on their own until they are formed. They are not to be “superior to the teacher but when fully trained every disciple will be like his/her teacher.” They will have to learn from their teachers, lest they lose sight of the teachings of Jesus and introduce another way of living in the Christian community. In this community people are treated differently. They are not to condemn, judge or find fault with one another. They are to treat one another with compassion and forgiveness.
What, one wonders, would be the effects on a community, if this kindness towards one another were truly present? Such a community would in itself be a preaching of the Gospel, even before any member went out on the road to preach. They would be a sign to all outsiders observing them of radical equity, where all were equal regardless of their social and economic standing. This community is called to a special way of life that imitates Jesus’.
The spirituality Jesus is teaching is not just meant for the enlightenment and behavior of the individual. God’s love is effective; it produces good fruit for the benefit of others. The good fruit we bear becomes a way we teach the faith to others. A parent complains his teenage son does not want to be “lectured” to about religion. This may very well be a time in their relationship for the father to reflect on how he communicates with his son, as well as how he listens to him. That having been said, there is also a strong faith teaching that is communicated just by the way the father lives his discipleship. The son will “learn the faith” by reading it in the life of his father. In this case the old saw is true, “actions speak louder than words.” Any child is a constant recording machine of his/her parents’ lives. As the child grows, what was passed on through the parents “good fruits,” may be the strength the child needs in a particularly difficult period. A good parent will be a good tree that bears good fruit..., will be a good person who, “...out of the store of goodness in his/her heart produces good.”
Children of such good parents, are constantly “eating” the good fruit a parent provided through the example of their lives. So, a woman will explain the source of her remarkable hospitality or concern for the poor and say, “my mother always went out of her way to welcome guests, especially when they were less fortunate than we were.” A grown son will remember, “my father used to volunteer at the parish clothing drive, and so I try to help those in need too.” A good tree bears good fruit that never seems to stop nourishing and forming another generation of disciples. We could pray at this liturgy for our hearts, that they remain malleable in God’s hands and receive the ongoing shaping that God is doing to make them disciples’. When our hearts are good, we will spontaneously produce the good Jesus speaks of, as if by second nature.
Jesus calls attention to the quality of our hearts. “A good person out of the store of goodness in his/her heart produces good....” Our individual hearts need tending. Our church heart needs attention as well. For example, our church communities do not always produce the good fruits of mutual forgiveness. We seem judgmental to non-members, we don’t always communicate hospitality to the outsider and marginalized, etc. Does our community draw from the goodness of its heart? Is our church community the Sermon on the Plain made visible in our age? Not all that flows from our hearts matches the behavior described in Luke’s account of Jesus’ sermon. Lent will be a time when we do “heart work.” We will open a construction area in our hearts. Think of those construction areas we see about our cities, the “hard hat” places where serious work is going on. That’s what will be happening for us in Lent. We are all disciples in training, waiting to be “fully trained,” when we will more perfectly reflect the life of Christ. Like Luke’s community, we continually need to hear again the instructions of the Teacher. Jesus is also speaking of himself as our teacher when he says, “No disciple is superior to the teacher, but when fully trained, every disciple will be like his/her teacher.” That’s our Lenten goal, that we will have our hearts and minds further shaped by the Teacher and as a result we will more and more become “like the teacher.”
Weekly Memorization
Taken from the gospel for today’s session…
Remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.
Living the Good News
What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?
Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:
Reflection Questions
- Luke’s church was in need of re-commitment to prayer and community life. Does this same need exist in our present church?
- The first lines of this gospel are about discernment: We should look at what people do, not what they say. Our words and actions reflect the condition of our spiritual hearts.
Have you ever run across someone whose true goodness was reflected in the way (s)he treated others?
Have you ever run across those who pretended goodness with a certain sense of self-righteousness? - Did my self-righteousness ever blind me to the “log in my own eye”?
What is the log in my eye that is blinding me to the goodness of another? (anxiety, poor self-esteem, culture of competitiveness, over-inflated sense of my own worth—this is not an excuse, but to recognize it honestly is the beginning dealing with it) - Have I ever criticized a friend or relative for a certain habitual behavior, and then realized that I sort of do the same thing?
- Does my ambition blind me to the needs of others or the worth of others?
- How much of our conversation is focused on the faults and failings of others?
- How often do I fail? Do I acknowledge my failures to myself? To others?
- Am I aware of my inadequacies, but not so scrupulous that it paralyzes me?
Have I ever used my shortcomings as a way to be gentler and more understanding of others? - Do I habitually look at others with “God’s eyes”?
Do I make a practice of thinking of the best of others? - How do I relate to those who live with me, work with me (Am I judgmental, kind, condescending, respectful, bossy, passive, a martyr?) Do I view my daily interactions as a way to practice being compassionate, generous of spirit, and loving?
- What is the role of humility?
What is false humility? - What lessons from the life of Jesus have I learned about the kind of person I should be? Where can I do better?
Meditations
A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Imagination:
I read Luke 18:9-14 (the Pharisee and the Tax Collector). I place myself in the events of this little story. What does the temple look like? Where is each man standing? What is each man wearing? Form a picture in your mind of what each man actually looks like—tall, short, handsome, plain, bearded or not, bald or hirsute, etc. … What is the posture and manner of the Pharisee? How about that of the tax collector? With whom do I identify: the man who did what he was supposed to, gave to the poor, prayed often and regularly, and was an honest, good person; or the tax collector, who preyed on the weak and the helpless, extorting monies from them that they could not afford, and raking in a good profit for himself? When we try to live a good life, and mostly succeed, is it hard not to be a little smug sometimes? When we try and fail and fail at being the kind of person we want, is it hard not to give up sometimes?
In what way am I like each of them? I try to put myself in each man’s shoes. First I look t the part of me that loves and honors God and tries to be a good person. Do I unconsciously measure my goodness against that of others around me? Do I frequently air my opinions about those who are doing wrong? Then I look at the part of me that has made mistakes and hurt people. Am I willing to admit this? And if I DO admit my flaws and failings, do I wear them like a martyr, seeking sympathy and understanding which I am sometimes not willing to grant to others?
If someone has hurt me, do I use that mistake or unkindness as a weapon to guilt others into paying me attention or feeling sorry for me? Is there someone in my life that I need to forgive as God forgives?
A Meditation in the Dominican style/Asking Questions:
Adapted from Sacred Space 2019:
I bring myself before Jesus and allow myself some time to be regarded by his loving look. I ask him to remove any speck or plank that may be in my eye. I pray for the clarity of vision that he had. My perspective may not be the best one; my view of myself and of the world may need correction. I pray for humility and for a deeper capacity to perceive God’s presence and action around me. It does not matter how good your religion looks on the outside, “the Lord looketh on the heart.” It does not matter how much you impress men, or yourself for that matter, with what you say and do, “the Lord looketh on the heart.” It does not matter how sound your doctrine is, “the Lord looketh on the heart.” It does not matter how precisely you keep the ordinances, “the Lord looketh on the heart.” It does not matter how much money you give, how many chapters you read, how much Scripture you memorize, how much you pray, or how often you attend church, “the Lord looketh on the heart.” God wants our hearts. God demands our hearts. The root of the matter is the heart. “My son, give me thine heart.” If the heart is right, the fruit is good, no matter how bad it looks to men. If the heart is evil, the fruit is evil, no matter how good it looks to men. Do not judge. You are what you do Be careful of following a blind person Be careful of teaching others if your heart is not like Jesus’—if you are preaching rather than being.
A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship:
Fr. Tony DeMello, S.J., said “when I change, the whole world changes.” Attitude is everything. I bring myself before Jesus and allow myself some time to be regarded by his loving look. I ask him to remove any speck or plank that may be in my eye. I pray for the clarity of vision that he had. My perspective may not be the best one; my view of myself and of the world may need correction. For example, when I am listening to others am I only seeing their faults and failings? Can I look back at the last 24 hours and see where I might have been very busy judging someone else? Where might I need an “attitude adjustment”? I pray to Jesus for humility and for a deeper capacity to perceive God’s presence and action around me.
A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:
This week, any time someone irritates you or makes you angry, any time someone does something in word or deed to hurt you, stop and say a prayer for that person. Ask God to be good to that person and grant that person health and happiness. And mean it!
Poetic Reflection:
Thomas Centolella, a Stanford Stegner Fellow, wrote a poem that really captures the message of today’s gospel:
“In The Evening We Shall Be Examined On Love”
-St. John of the CrossAnd it won’t be multiple choice,
though some of us would prefer it that way.
Neither will it be essay, which tempts us to run on
when we should be sticking to the point, if not together.
In the evening there shall be implications
our fear will turn to complications. No cheating,
we’ll be told and we’ll try to figure the cost of being true
to ourselves. In the evening when the sky has turned
that certain blue, blue of exam books, blue of no more
daily evasions, we shall climb the hill as the light empties
and park our tired bodies on a bench above the city
and try to fill in the blanks. And we won’t be tested
like defendants on trial, cross-examined
till one of us breaks down, guilty as charged. No,
in the evening, after the day has refused to testify,
we shall be examined on love like students
who don’t even recall signing up for the course
and now must take their orals, forced to speak for once
from the heart and not off the top of their heads.
And when the evening is over and it’s late,
the student body asleep, even the great teachers
retired for the night, we shall stay up
and run back over the questions, each in our own way:
what’s true, what’s false, what unknown quantity
will balance the equation, what it would mean years from now
to look back and know
we did not fail.(from Lights & Mysteries)
Literary Reflection:
In this very short poem by Mary Oliver, we get a glimpse of a way the we can treat an experience of being hurt, and forgive that person for the hurt inflicted. Has this ever been your experience?“The Uses of Sorrow”
(In my sleep I dreamed the poem) Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this, too, was a gift.
Closing Prayer
Jesus, you ask a lot of me. It is sometimes so hard for me to be kind, or understanding or forgiving when I am hurt or angry. It is so hard to love as you did, asking for nothing in return. This does not come naturally to me. Help me to look for the best in people, making allowances for their faults and failings. Help me not to carry grudges which diminish happiness my life and in the lives of those around me. Help me to understand the conviction of St. John of the Cross: “In the Evening we will be judged on love.”
