This Lenten Season begins on Wednesday and is our annual 40-day journey. Actually, it is 46 days but, we do not count Sundays as “Lenten” days since Sundays commemorate the Resurrection. This Lent, we will be reflecting on how we care for people and how we care for creation. Lent is an opportunity for physical, emotional and spiritual improvement, allowing God to speak to us through prayer, fasting, almsgiving and creation.
How fitting that our Gospel this morning, just a couple of days before Lent begins, asks us, “Why do you notice the splinter in another’s eyes, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?” Let’s face it. It is easy to see the faults of others and condemn or ridicule them rather than to see our own shortcomings, faults and sins.
But the Lord warns us to resist this temptation and remain humble by owning our sins and failures. Lent does that. The holy season of Lent invites us to examine our deficiencies, failures and sins.
Jesus speaks about being hypocritical when we notice the weakness and sin of others yet fail to recognize our faults and sins. It is deceitful to act contrary to our own beliefs and convictions. So, if we say we care about people and we care about creation, yet our actions don’t back this up, then we are hypocritical like the Scribes and Pharisees.
Jesus is harsh with them when he calls them hypocrites because they portray the image of holiness, but they are blinded by greed and selfishness.
Physical blindness is bad, but spiritual blindness is infinitely worse. I judge that spiritual blindness is caused by pride. Pride is the wooden beam in my eye. It is my pride that disrupts my relationship with God, the common good and creation. I cannot see my faults and sins when I fall into the trap of my blinding pride.
What is the beam in your eye? What blocks you from seeing your own shortcomings, failures and sins?
Close your eyes and think about it.
What we condemn in others is probably something we don’t see in ourselves and refuse to acknowledge. Psychologists call this projection. It is a theory in psychology in which humans defend themselves against their own unpleasant impulses by denying their existence while attributing them to others.
For example, a person who is habitually rude may constantly accuse other people of being rude. It can take the form of shifting blame and name-calling. The things I condemn in others are probably the things I don’t like in myself.
Needless to say, humility is the most basic and necessary foundation of genuine holiness. This virtue, no matter how unattractive to so many people, enables you and me to see clearly who we truly are with our weaknesses and our strengths.
Humility means awareness and acceptance of our giftedness and capacity to do good for God, others, self and creation.
St Augustine helps us realize the great value of humility in our life. He said, “The way to Christ is first through humility, second through humility and third through humility.”
A humble person is honest and truthful. They know themselves.
There is a story about a mother whose daughter was addicted to sweets. The mother approached Mahatma Gandhi and explained the problem to him. Gandhi asked whether he might talk to the young girl.
Gandhi replied, “Bring your daughter to me in three weeks and I will speak to her.”
After three weeks, the mother brought her daughter to him. He took the young girl aside and spoke with her about the harmful effects of eating sweets excessively. The mother thanked Gandhi for his counseling and then asked him, “But why didn’t you talk to my daughter three weeks ago.”
Gandhi replied simply, “Because three weeks ago, I was still addicted to sweets.”
He recognized his wooden beam. We must get rid of that wooden beam in our own eye before we can help someone else with their splinter.
And there is the lesson. None of us is perfect and we all have wooden beams in our eyes. We need to deal with our inner conflict. Do you talk the talk and walk the walk, or just talk the talk?
I have known Karen since grade school and officiated at her wedding to Keith over 45 years ago. We exchange Christmas cards every year and it was in this year’s Christmas card that she mentioned she had been diagnosed with inoperable stage four cancer. Regardless of this, and to my surprise, her card was upbeat as she wrote about Keith, the children and grandchildren.
It was in the last paragraph that she wrote about her cancer. “The darkness of my cancer is strong, but my faith is stronger. As the darkness grows, it is now the little things that humbly help me to face my reality. So, I choose to do what St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, ‘Be firm, steadfast, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.’”
I must have re-read that line five times, asking myself, “Do I choose to be firm, steadfast, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord my labor is not in vain?”
In today’s Gospel, Jesus challenges us to face our hypocritical behavior by owning up to the wooden beam in our own eye. The beam that prevents us from being humble enough to admit to our faults, shortcomings and sins.
Let us use this Lenten season to be grateful to the Creator of humankind and the Creator of this Earth, by becoming sensitive to how we can better care for people and creation.
Let each of us pray for the grace to remove the wooden beam in our eyes, so we can see clearly enough to help remove the splinter from our sister and brother’s eyes.
Lord, please help me see where the inconsistencies are in my life so that with the aid of the Holy Spirit, I can be more caring toward others and creation. People are not numbers, and creation is not a trashcan. Make us your protectors of people and stewards of creation.
Amen.
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