Jesus said to his disciples:
“Stop judging, that you may not be judged.
For as you judge, so will you be judged,
and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.
Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye,
but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?
How can you say to your brother,
‘Let me remove that splinter from your eye,’
while the wooden beam is in your eye?
You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first;
then you will see clearly
to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.”
The Gospel according to St. Matthew 7:1-5
Jesus begins his discourse with the words, stop judging. The judging Jesus refers to is the kind of judging that arises from our disordered nature! It is how we narrow our vision in our myopic measure of others. This instruction Jesus gives rightly orders our thoughts and motives by exposing our jump-to-conclusion assumptions about what is happening around us. The love and mercy of Jesus extend to us, and the wisdom and counsel of his Holy Spirit can free us of the wooden beam of self-preoccupation. Spiritual discernment in the tradition of The Church helps us discern the bitterroot of a judgmental spirit that fester from disordered pride, fear, or anger.
Jesus, who knows our minds better than we do, uses the metaphor– wooden beam and splinter–to magnify how disordered we become when we ignore what God desires for us to love him by loving others. God said to his people in the Old Testament:
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
Leviticus 19:18
The mandate remained the same when God took on flesh as our Savior to show us how to love. A lawyer came to Jesus and put a question to Jesus. He asked him what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus responded, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” But apparently, the lawyer got a little uncomfortable about how far he had to go to love people, so he asked Jesus, Who is my neighbor? The same answer Jesus offers to the man, he offers to our question on how to remove the wooden beam in our eye: extend mercy to everyone!
The command to love is continued through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit as he counsels the apostles as they write letters to The Early Church. St. Paul writes to the Galatians,
..You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.
Galatians 5:15
Do thoughts about others ever consume you? Do you ever forget to remember to love others or keep your mouth shut? Stand in line! The best advice on how to love was given to me by a friend recently who quoted St. Paul, “We are called to bear witness to Christ’s love, grace, and mercy.” Those words are changing my perspective on some significant relationships in my life. Another question she recommended I answer was: Are they doing this because they are strong or weak? Allowing the Holy Spirit to grant us insight into our relationships brings order to our disordered judgments.
St. Thomas Aquinas penned, To love is to will the good of the other. To arrive at this response can be glacial, but it can happen through the power of the Holy Spirit working in us, transforming our perceptions of others and our self-perception. The saying goes, hurt people, hurt people; the hurt we have endured from others may blind us with the wooden beam of a harsh spirit. And, it follows, that the pain the other has endured may cause them to react to us harshly.
Often a felt-grievance is based on the human error of reacting to an unfair word or action in a relationship. We see it all around us; we see it in ourselves. Someone must stop the dysfunction in our relationships; Jesus clearly states it begins with us. I know how difficult it can be! The wooden beam is often tightly wrapped with pain caused by those closest to us resulting from generational dysfunction. Or it can simply be the colliding with others that’s common in the crowded world we live. The particulars of how we get to the place of having a judgmental spirit don’t matter; the response must always be the same–We are to bear witness to Christ’s love. Samuel Johnson wrote, “Kindness is in our power even when fondness is not.” Indeed! You may be thinking thoughts I think when once again I’ve been burned by the same person in the same way–it’s even too hard to feel kind, let alone respond kindly. But here’s the thing, Jesus Christ’s very nature is kindly, and his actions bore that truth out. While we struggle to endure someone’s presence in our lives, Christ, in us, can love through us even when it is hard to feel kind.
Friend, the LORD God, in His abundant love and infinite mercy for us, stands beside us, waiting for us to allow his Holy Spirit to gently remove the wooden beam from the eyes of our soul. He knows how the wooden beam got planted in our eyes. He knows why we struggle as we live alongside other people who also have wooden beams in their eyes!
Holy God, your command to love others is real hard sometimes! Grant us the depth of love you have for us as we extend your love to others.
Jesus, our Saviour, fix our gaze on the Wooden Beam of the Cross that you willingly suffered and died upon for our sake. Grant us the courage to get over ourselves and move through the power of your Cross at work in us!
Holy Spirit of God, give us discernment and wisdom as we live beside others. Grant us new eyes to see and new ears to hear.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, it is now, and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen
The Maiden Warrior 