By Fr. Eugene Lobo SJ –
Eighth Sunday of the Year February 27, 2022
Sir 27:4-7; 1Cor 15:54-58; Luke 6:39-45
It is not at all unusual to hear people talk with great authority on things of which they know very little e.g. government taxation policies and other complex problems. It happens the same way in our relationships. In our relationships today we often tend to find the defects in others and criticize them. The noticeable factor is that in our fault-finding in others the focus of our own deficiencies remains hidden and this helps us to feel ever so self-righteous. Instead of criticizing others, it will do a world of good if we care for them. Then we will listen not only to what they are saying but also to what they are trying to say with or without words. If we care for them we won’t impose our views, our plans, ideas, discipline, advice, correction, guidance, and our judgment. If we care for them we will show them how talented, capable, industrious, genuine, original, creative, skilled, friendly, trustworthy, resourceful, good, and lovable persons they are. In our gospel today, Jesus asks us to search as carefully as possible our own faults as we do for the faults of others. to the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord their labour is not in vain. The hard work of the Christian is not a waste because the Christian is “in the Lord” who has already won the victory. In the first reading, the Book of Sirach helps in shaping the faith of the Jewish people and equips them to remain steadfast to monotheistic religious practice.
In the first reading, Sirach says that people’s faults appear when they speak, especially when they speak and aren’t considering their words. We often hide behind masks – but conversation reveals our inner thoughts no matter how careful we are to disassemble. Speech is a means of testing the inner character of a person because what comes in speech betrays what’s in our hearts. The climax of the reading is the last line (v. 7), saying that what a person says is clearly the test of that person. Sirach’s teaching is very relevant for human integrity in today’s world of public relations and image-making, the sound bite and the slogan. In this passage, Sirach advises everyone to live in accordance with divine law, which should be the highest rule and main aspiration of man’s behavior. But as he says in the prologue, Ben Sirach wanted to write this book for those living abroad “who wished to gain learning, being prepared in character to live according to the law.” The knowledge of the person comes by the way he lives and communicates and then we understand the divine presence. Thus once we open our mouth we reveal ourselves. Therefore he says not to praise people before they speak, 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.
In the second reading, we hear Paul end his discussion of the resurrection of the dead with a hymn of triumph over those who has died? When the bodies of the elect, by resurrection change, or become incorruptible or immortal, the last enemy, death, will have been vanquished and Scripture fulfilled. Paul says that death is swallowed up in victory and the sting of death disappears. Death entered the world through sin and the power of sin is the law. Saint Paul suggests that the law gave sin its power by giving a knowledge of God’s commandments and threatening death to a sinner, without giving the poor man the strength to keep them. But we express thanks to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. The new covenant replaces the old. Sin can now be forgiven and forgotten. “Christ did not win the victory for himself but for our benefit. For when He became a man, He remained God, and by overcoming the devil, he who never sinned gained the victory for us, who were bound in death because of sin. Paul’s own experience of the Risen Lord and his life of hardship focused his attention on the life beyond the present world. Our new life in Jesus renders insignificant the physical death that appears so final and complete to those who don’t see life in terms of the eternal risen life of Jesus.
Today we have the continuation of Luke’s sermon on the plain giving us some of the teachings from Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount. Last Sunday’s Gospel told us not to judge or we would be judged ourselves. This does not mean that we are never to criticize other people. ‘Criticize’ comes from Greek to make a rational judgment. So we speak of a film or drama ‘critic’ who may indeed tear production to pieces or, on the other hand, may praise it to the skies giving full credit to it. We have here the three distinctive unrelated sayings of Jesus: blind leading the blind, the splinter in the companion’s eye, the good tree and its fruits. What is being forbidden by Jesus is not judgment as to such but negative, destructive judgment. There are times when we are expected to give constructive, helpful criticism. We cannot pass judgment unless we have some vision and understanding. How can the blind, those without understanding, presume to give leadership to others who are blind? Jesus asks us. The result is inevitable: “Both will fall into the pit.”
The disciple is not above the teacher. This is to say that our judgments should be like those of Jesus. The one who is fully qualified will be like the teacher: 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 judgment on the Church, for instance, with the past experience. What we learned in grade school or high school is 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.
Today’s gospel from St. Luke follows immediately upon his beautiful explanation of unconditional love whereby we are to love even our enemies. This kind of love is not natural. It can come only with the grace of God and as a result of much work and effort. But this is precisely the challenge of today’s gospel for each one of us. To be so positive of all other people that we can accept them for who and what they are, that we can overcome those occasions when we tend to misjudge others, that we can stress the good in others and hope they can do the same for us. We tend not to see the good in others as much as we see the bad. We misjudge the actions of others very readily. We allow certain biases to arise that prevent us from ever being close to some people. In fact, there may be some individuals whose mere presence makes us uncomfortable or even bristle. Such attitudes and reactions are certainly not compatible with the notion of the Mystical Body of Christ.
Jesus says that everything depends on the inner person and not on the outward appearance. Hypocrisy will not long go undetected. According to the Greek understanding, a hypocrite is an actor. The actor does the external show at a play or drama and internally he is different. He remains as before and there is no real change in him. No really good tree can produce bad fruit, and no really bad tree can consistently produce genuinely good fruit. “Shake up the sieve and the rubbish soon appears,” says today’s First Reading. Once we open our mouth we reveal ourselves. “Do not praise people before they speak, 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. 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.
Jesus calls hypocrites, those who notice a tiny sprinter in others but are blind to the plank in them. They are unaware of their shortcomings while they decry the faults of others. These people are often negative and hostile. They have the habit of focusing on the bad side of everything especially the bad side of people. They are pruned to criticize and find fault. But, we are sorry, “He who would find a friend without fault will never find him.” The reason is simple: there is no one without fault and there is no ideal man, only a real person. The appealing thing as Jesus explains is about faultfinding in others and that it takes the focus off our own deficiencies and helps us to feel ever so self-righteous. It’s good to criticize others than we being criticized; there is no obligation on our part. It hurts us. Jesus puts it more positively. Instead of criticizing others, why not caring for them? If we care for them, we will listen not only to what they are saying but also to what they are trying to say with or without words. If we care for them we won’t impose our views, our plans, ideas, discipline, advice, correction, guidance, and our judgment.
It is important to emphasize that the Gospel is in no way saying we should not have opinions or that we should not express them. What it is saying is that we must avoid having such a high awareness of the shortcomings of others that we have lost the ability to see and accept our own. It tells us is that the real solution is for me to change. We ought to respond in a positive way rather than think negatively of the other or find fault in them. We personally must be in charge of my own life and stop trying to change others. We can recollect what 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. Here we can take off my actor’s mask and be fully ourselves. In the process, we can let other people to be themselves. Then we are no longer worried about planks in our own eyes or in others’. What we see is what there is. Therefore let us judge ourselves by the standards of Jesus: a good tree bears good fruit. “A person’s words flow out of what fills their heart.”
Instead of criticizing others and finding faults in others, it is better that we learn to know ourselves. We can do this in three ways: First, we can know ourselves by what we do. We are identified by our work. But that is not always a good way to know ourselves. When we do nothing special it does not mean that we perform nothing. For example, let us consider a sick person who is bedridden and cannot do anything. By the way, he suffers he does something for God. So, we do not judge ourselves simply by what we do. Second, we can be known by what we say. But there are times that we are careful with our words because we don’t like to hurt or make enemies. We are very careful with our words because we don’t like to lose our friends. Finally, we can be known by what we think. Because we do things according to what we think is right. We do not judge ourselves in terms of what we do, neither in terms of what we say, but in terms of what we think and the way we think. That’s why in our gospel today, Jesus asks us to search as carefully as possible for our own faults as we do for the faults of others.
Bishop Potter of New York was sailing for Europe. As he went aboard the large ocean liner, he found that another passenger was to share the cabin with him. After looking at his quarters, he went back to the purser’s desk and asked if he could leave his gold watch and other valuables on the ships safe. He explained that ordinarily he never did this sort of thing but he had been to his cabin and had met the man who would occupy the other bed and judging from his appearance, he was afraid that he might not be a very trustworthy person. The purser accepted the responsibility of caring for valuables and remarked, “It’s an alright bishop. I’ll be very glad to take care of them for you. The other man has just been up here and deposited all his valuables for the same reason.”
A 24-year-old boy seeing out from the train’s window shouted…”Dad, look the trees are going behind!” Dad smiled and a young couple sitting nearby, looked at the 24 year Old’s childish behaviour with pity, suddenly he again exclaimed… “Dad, look the clouds are running with us!” The couple couldn’t resist and said to the old man… “Why don’t you take your son to a good doctor?” The old man smiled and said…”I did and we are just coming from the hospital, my son was blind from birth, he just got his eyes today.” Every single person on the planet has a story. Don’t judge people before you truly know them. The truth might surprise you.