Reading: 2 Kings 17:5-8,13-15,18; Ps. 60; Matt. 7:1-5
Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia
WHY WE MUST LOOK INTO OUR LIVES BEFORE CRITICISING AND JUDGING OTHERS
One of the unattractive attitudes of the human person is the tendency to often criticise, judge, and condemn others without examining our own faults. Have we ever experienced a situation where, while we were condemning others for their faults, we suddenly realised that our own faults are just as numerous as theirs? This does happen often in our relationships with one another.
This ugly attitude is what Jesus is addressing today in the Gospel passage, when he said “ Do not judge, and you will not be judged; because the judgements you give are the judgements you will get, and the amount you measure out is the amount you will be given. Why do you observe the speck in your brother’s eye and never notice the log in your own?
Here, Jesus is referring to the improper and prideful attitudes of many of the Pharisees, the scribes and teachers of the Law and many others like them, whose self-acclaimed righteousness has led to criticism and condemnation of other people. For they have failed to see the log in their eye while seeking to remove the speck in others. But what is this log in our eyes? It is the log of pride, greed and self-righteousness.
These logs of pride, greed and self-righteousness make us forget who we are and claim who we are not. Pride, as we know, is the first capital sin; it makes us look down on people, and pride makes us blind. It makes us not look into our own lives to see and accept how wrong we can be. This is because we are often controlled by our ego and pride, our human ambitions and desires, for we like to always be in control and superior to others.
This is what we see in the life of the people of Israel in our first reading today. For we heard that the Lord had given Israel and Judah this warning, ‘Turn from your wicked ways and keep my commandments and my laws in accordance with the entire Law I laid down for your fathers and delivered to them through my servants the prophets.’ But they would not listen, they were more stubborn than their ancestors had been who had no faith in the Lord their God.
Therefore, today 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 weaknesses. So instead of pointing out what is lacking in others, we must look into ourselves, and find ways that we can make good use of the opportunities that God has given us to show good examples to others.
We are to discard all our prideful, wicked and sinful ways of life and replace them with genuine love for one another, with new zeal and sincere commitment to telling one another the truth in all humility.
Dear friends, we are not called to judge, because sometimes what we judge in others, we are doing worse. Hence, Jesus is challenging us today to think differently about how we live our lives. Calling us to look into our inner being, our interior life, that part of us that we hide from one another.
Let us purify them in humility, so that we can be pure and free to help others in their struggles with their weakness. Therefore, it’s time to look into ourselves and take away our prideful ways of life, to humbly accommodate the weaknesses and faults of others, especially in our families, societies and the world at large, knowing that no one is perfect without the other.
LET US PRAY: Lord God, give us the grace of humility and the capacity to always look within us to be more aware of our inadequacies, and so become more gentle in dealing with others, we ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Have a blessed and grace-filled week.
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