Homily For Friday Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time Year B, 13th September, 2024. The Memorial of St. John Chrysostom

 

Readings: 1Cor 9:16-19.22-27, Ps.84, Luke: 6: 39-42

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia

 

THE LOG OF PRIDE MAKES A LEADER BLIND

 

As humans, we are quick to always criticize and condemn other people. We are good at seeing people's faults and mistakes. But has it ever occurred to us that, while we are condemning other persons for their faults, we suddenly realise that our own faults are just as many as theirs?

 

It is this ugly attitude that Jesus is addressing today in the Gospel passage when he said: Can one blind man guide another? Surely both will fall into a pit? Why do you observe the speck in your brother’s eye and never notice the 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 speck that is in your brother’s eye.

 

Here Jesus is referring to the blindness from the truth that the Pharisees and the Scribes and indeed most of us and our so-called leaders today have decided to embrace as we have neglected the spirituality behind the natural human traditions and laws, to follow the may ritual and routing traditions and laws we have created out of our own selfish desires. Leaders who have the responsibility to lead, guide and teach the people have decided to embrace darkness and falsehood. And the greed, jealousy and wickedness in our hearts have blindfolded us and made us become blind leaders of the blind.

 

Hence, Jesus told us how we who are leaders have failed to see the log in our eyes while seeking to remove the speck in other's. But what is this log in our eyes? It is the log of pride. Pride makes us forget who we are and claim who we are not. Pride makes us look down on people. Pride makes us blind. It makes us not look into our own lives. Little wonder pride is the first capital sin.

 

Therefore, we are called to humbly look into our lives and identify all those ugly attitudes of pride in us and get rid of them, so that we can humbly correct and accommodate other people’s speck of faults and weakness. Then we can say, like St. Paul in our first reading, who, though not a slave of any man, made himself the slave of everyone to win as many as he could. For the weak, he made himself weak. He made himself all things to all men in order to save some at any cost for the sake of the Gospel and to share in its blessings.

 

This is what we see in the life of John Chrysostom, whose memorial we celebrate today. He is known for his excellent preaching skills and was given the name Chrysostom, which means “golden mouth”, as he is usually called “John of the golden mouth” because he utilized the gift God gave him.

 

Dear friends, do we know people who behave like blind leaders of the blind? Are we one of such leaders? We are called today to constantly examine our conscience to know what kind of leader we are in any capacity we find ourselves. We are made to know that leadership requires taking away our log of pride in order to humbly remove or accommodate the speck of faults and weaknesses in others. So let us cultivate the right disposition of heart that will make us visionary leaders, leading those entrusted to us safely towards the path of truth and eternal life.

 

LET US PRAY: Lord God, there are so many blind leaders in our world today who out of pride lead humanity into destruction and death, help us to realize that we need to take away the log of pride that makes us blind in order to humbly remove and accommodate the faults and weakness of others thereby leading them to the path of truth and eternal life. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Have a favourable day.