September 11, 2020 – Friday of the 23rd Week in Ordinary Time
Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/091120.cfm)
Homily
Do you have a friend, or workmate, or classmate who tend to be so bitter with everything? Who always sees what is wrong and ugly in everything and everyone? Who tends to be so self-righteous and arrogant and more inclined in complaining, accusing and blurting out the faults and failures of others? And then thinks that he or she has the best ideas and solutions, the best personality and attitude? Yet, the person is very difficult to deal with. Well, that person could not just be our friend, we could be that very person.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus pointed this out for his disciples to realize the danger of self-righteousness that leads to bitterness, discontentment and insecurity. There is a need to recognize my own faults and sinfulness rather than undermining them by finding the fault of others in order to cover up my own.
Indeed, Jesus addressed this parable to teach his disciples how a person who seemed to be so righteous, yet, sick and sinful inside. Jesus compared these people to blind men leading the blinds, people who noticed the splinters in other people while being blind to the wooden beams in front of their own eyes. Jesus called them hypocrites.
As disciples of Jesus, he demands consistency in our words and actions, in the way we relate with others and with God, and in the way we look at ourselves. Consequently, there is a need for us to recognize our own “beams,” which also means recognizing our own sinfulness and failures. When we choose to blind ourselves from own sinfulness and failures, then, there is a danger of making ourselves distant from God, from others and from our own reality.
For today, let us see ourselves closer and ask, what are my beams of inconsistencies, bitter and hypocrite-attitudes?
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We will only be able to answer this when we also stop pointing our finger to accuse and destroy others. Hopefully, when we are able to identify our attitudes that are inconsistent to our faith then that will move us to be converted back to Christ, to be closer to him. Hinaut pa.
Jom Baring, CSsR
A DOSE OF GOD TODAY 