Today’s first reading shows us the beginning of the diaspora, where the tribes of Israel are scattered, leaving only the tribe of Judah. God allowed them to be tossed out of the land He had given them because of their continual turning away from Him. Once again…actions have consequences! In our Gospel reading from Matthew 7, Jesus gives us another of those “Ouch!” moments.
Jesus talks about how we’re so ready to point out the splinter in another’s eye without even noticing that we have a wooden beam in our own eye. How true! But why is that? What does it take to notice that wooden beam in our own eye? Perhaps something as simple as a look in the old mirror?
Self examination can be one of the most frightening things we can do. It can be very hard to take a look at ourselves and HONESTLY see our own faults. We ignore, blame, justify, rationalize and go through all kinds of silly mental gymnastics to try to explain away our actions. We don’t see that wooden beam because we don’t WANT to see that wooden beam. Let’s take a moment today to consciously look for that wooden beam in our own eye. Often times, our wooden beam will be a jumbo-sized version of the splinter we’re pointing out in our brother’s eye.
Father, show us our wooden beam(s) today. Give us the grace to allow you to do the painful surgery of removing it from our eye. Amen.
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