Remove the wooden beam from your own; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye

 

Scripture readings for today's reflection can be found at Friday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time | USCCB

In our gospel for today, our Lord is pointing out the dangers of us worrying too much about the sinfulness of other people in our lives. It’s easy for us to see the sinfulness of others and to judge them according to the standards that we understand from our Christian Faith. It’s good to pray for other people and their relationship with God, but our Lord is pointing out that we must first worry about our own relationship with God before we can turn to others and try to help them fix their lives.

What are the wooden beams in our eyes and the splinter that’s in our brother’s eyes that the Lord is talking about? Our Lord is talking about the sinfulness and shortcomings that we all have due to our sinful human nature. It is in our own sinfulness that we need to look at and to work on as we attempt to get closer to God. We need to improve our own relationship with God before we worry about other people’s relationship with God. In the gospel story about the woman caught in adultery, those who brought the woman before the Lord were all set to stone her to death for the sin she was caught doing and wanted Jesus to approve of the stoning. Jesus saw right through their hypocrisy and said, “He who is without sin, cast the first stone.”  Realizing their own sinfulness, they dropped the stones and left the woman alone to receive forgiveness and love from the Lord. All throughout the gospels, Jesus is teaching us about our need to improve our own relationship with God before we start worrying about the sinfulness of other.   We need to ask ourselves: Do we have God in the center of who we are? Do we spend time developing that relationship with God by the regular practice of prayer and reflection on scripture? Do we make the regular use of confession during the times when we fall short of who we are as Christians? In addition to our time in Church at mass and the prayers we do here, do we also spend time during the day in thanksgiving to God for the many gifts he has given us? It’s how we live our life that the Lord is pointing out in today’s gospel. The “wooden beam” is the ways we fall short in loving God and our neighbor. We are not to worry about how others are living their lives of faith in God, but rather we are to worry about where we are in our own relationship with Him.

When it comes to sin, and developing a life of holiness, we must adopt a “Me-first” mentality.  We need to take an honest look at our own lives before we try to point out sin in someone else. An honest Christian reserves his strictest criticism for himself. Paul writes in 1 Timothy 4:16 to watch your own life and doctrine closely, for in so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.

As we grow closer to God in our daily prayer life and live in a way that is pleasing to God, we will start to remove that wooden beam that is in our eyes. Others will see how we are living and at this time we can start helping each other grow closer to the God who loves us without restrictions.