Word to the Wise
Monday, June 25, 2012 - Monday in the 12th Week in Ordinary Time
[2 Kgs 17:5-8, 13-15a, 18 and Matt 7:1-5]Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?
If someone were to ask me what I hear most often in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, I think I would have to identify the sin of being "judgmental!" For some reason there seems to be an awareness in penitents that this is a very undesirable way to behave! I agree, but I find myself wondering how this particular fault has been so well-taught and others more or less forgotten? Perhaps the image that Jesus uses in his teaching has made a lasting impression! That wooden beam in an eye can make a lasting impression in more than one way! On occasion, when preaching about this passage, I have brought in a piece of wood and handed to someone in the congregation to pass around while I'm speaking! I try to find a piece that has some obvious splinters!
When I hear someone accuse themself of being judgmental, I sometimes ask if they can remember the person about whom they were being judgmental. Often I get the response that there's no one in particular! It's no one and everyone! Somehow "judgmentalism" has become a state of being! Maybe that's the reason that Jesus' teaching on this strikes a chord - the fault is so common! It is as if everyone is walking around with a judge's gavel in hand. I occasionally tell a penitent to take that gavel out in the yard and bury it so that the next time he or she is feeling "judgmental" they have to go out in the yard and dig up the gavel before passing judgment! Maybe, to be more in keeping with Jesus' image, I should tell them to remove the gavel from their own eye! AMEN
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