Readings:
1 Corinthians 9: 16-19, 22-27
Luke 6: 39-42
Reflection:
Interestingly this Gospel passage in both Matthew and Luke in some translations has the heading ‘Judging Others’ while in the newly revised Jerusalem Bible it has the heading ‘integrity’. Integrity seems to fit better because it suggests that truth is the important quality if we are to be able to challenge one another when we make mistakes or indeed do something objectively wrong that needs to be called out. What Jesus is challenging is hypocrisy. Undoubtedly we all have our blind spots which we need to hear about and remedy if we are to grow and if we are to be able to see clearly.
This scene can be played out between individuals but also through the media. So many judgements are made on social media and indeed on all media that are based on blindness of one kind or another. Often it is prejudice that is speaking where a whole people can be judged on the actions of one person from that race or nationality. In the first reading Paul is reflecting on his life and on his duty to preach the Gospel which he counts as a privilege. Paul knows that he experienced his own blindness when he was a persecutor. He knows that he saw through the lens of his own prejudice and misunderstanding and now he is on a new path, ‘a free man’.
Today these readings call us to speak and act with integrity and be willing to check the lens through which we look at people and events and engage in the dialogue that is necessary to find a peaceful and healing path for our own relationships and for our world. This is the good news that will set us free.
Sr. Brigid Murphy CP, Sisters of the Cross & Passion, Melbourne