Usually, it is kids who do exactly the opposite of what they are told to do. They must do it out of spite, I guess, and it is unnerving and frustrating their parents and teachers.  

However, if it is adults who act out of spite, we feel hurt and wonder why they act that way. 

Not unnerved, but perhaps with a touch of frustration, Jesus asks us: “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own? 42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,’ when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.” Luke 6:41-42 

He is voicing his frustration from witnessing our natural tendency to be bothered by the splinters in the eyes of our brothers and sisters rather than, prudently and at length, first looking not so much at the beam in our eyes as at the condition of our hearts. 

Throughout the pages of the Gospel, repeatedly, Jesus  

insists that we fix our spiritual eyes on the most intimate and most sacred part of our being. 

“Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.” John 14:23 

Our body, sanctified in the waters of Baptism, becomes the holy temple of God: The Holy Trinity dwells in us.  Hence, if we do not live with the awareness of this awesome and unmerited intimacy with God, and we do not benefit from this, we might walk in darkness and wind up into a pit, while displaying a large dose of hypocrisy. 

The process of working to increase awareness of the Holy Trinity dwelling in us and the need to correspond eagerly to divine grace, is initiated and carried out by keeping God’s Word spoken constantly to us. 

Indeed, the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart. Hebrews 4:12 

Specifically, directing our gaze to what goes on in our hearts, the Word of God will point out our flaws. 

However, being done by the Holy Spirit, it remains a process marked by gentleness, humility, patience and perseverance. 

I dare say that, if we pay close attention, we can hear the Holy Spirit whispering to us words of understanding for the flaws which we notice in people closest to us, even those that bother us the most. 

Indeed, the Holy Spirit will lead us to realize how the defects we see readily in others are close to being like the defects which are our natural baggage and of which we might have yet to become fully aware.  

A beneficial and humbling thought would be to wonder often how the Holy Trinity must feel having to dwell in our hearts amid traces of the evils which we might have inside: “From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within, and they defile.” Mark 7:21-23 

Once we become familiar with the traces of evil in us,  

the Holy Spirit will hold us back from passing judgment on others and he will discourage us from condemning others even when their guilt seems quite evident. 

While we progress spiritually by focusing more closely on our divine Guest, the Holy Spirit will help us revert to reflect on our mistakes and flaws by increasing our humility and understanding of the human frailty which is the common heritage of all human beings. 

The light which the Holy Spirit keeps shedding on our real spiritual condition will make us patient with our neighbor, humble in owning up to our shortcomings and firmly confident in God’s mercy and forgiveness. 

Speaking of light, do we ever feel as if we are walking hesitantly in darkness? If so, don’t you find it interesting that, today, Jesus starts addressing us with a rhetorical question: “Can a blind person guide a blind person?” It must be an unsettling question. What happened to the light we received on the day of our Baptism? 

Some of us might not be ready, now, to find out about the causes of our protracted or occasional darkness. It could be hard and time consuming to pinpoint what caused our light to be dimmed or extinguished. 

But I believe that my role as your ministerial priest is to urge all of us to get in touch with the Holy Spirit in our hearts. If we display heartfelt sadness over the loss or the dimming of our inner light, and we humbly ask him to reignite it, he will be delighted to do so and eager to teach us how to protect it from falsehoods and to make it brighter and brighter.  

The Holy Spirit will continue to work in us also by uprooting thornbushes and brambles, i.e., our defects starting, of course, from the most harmful ones.  

He is doing this necessary and painful uprooting mostly through the Sacrament of Reconciliation and through quiet reflection on the words of life that the Church, as a most nurturing mother, chooses for our consideration and challenge every time we assemble for the Eucharist.  

Consequently, the words of life we welcome Sunday after Sunday will fall on fertile ground and bear in us the generous fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, and faithfulness. Galatians 5:22