Are you the blind person who tries to lead others?

SEEING YOUR OWN FAULTS

Lk. 6:39-45

A cartoonist could have a field day with the story Jesus told of the man with a plank in his eye, trying to extract a splinter from his brother's eye.  We may laugh at this, but Jesus' intention was serious.  He wanted us to recognise how hypocritical we can be.  We can see the faults in others but are unable to see our own.  If only we would take the plank out of our own eye, we would be able to see more clearly to take the splinter from our brother's eye.  In other words, before we criticise or judge another, we must begin by reforming ourselves.

It is easy to see the way in which other people need to change.  There are husbands who want to reform their wives and wives who want to reform their husbands.  Parents who want to reform their children, and older children who want to change their parents.  Priests who would like to reform their parishioners, and parishioners who would like to reform their priests.  It is true that the world is far from perfect, but reformation, like charity, begins at home.  If we want a better world, the place to start, said Jesus, is with ourselves.  But that is something we are loath to do.  We would much prefer to correct the faults and failures of others around us than on ourselves.

Why is this?  It is because we find it very difficult to see ourselves as we really are.  We also tend to judge our own behaviour much more leniently than we judge the behaviour of others.  When someone loses their temper, we may call that person a spoiled brat, and say that they should grow up.  But when we lose our temper, we explain that we are tired, or we have a headache, or we were just not ourselves, and people ought to show a little more understanding of our difficult circumstance.  When someone expects to have things their way, we will say that those people are selfish and uncaring.  When we want things our way, we are only protecting our rights and preventing people from taking advantage of us.  Whereas others have obvious faults, we ourselves have minor idiosyncrasies that matter very little.

Sometimes we make our faults even appear to us as virtues.  We think we are brave, when we are really being stubborn.  We say we are being helpful, when we are actually an interfering nuisance.  We think of ourselves as easy-going, which may be an excuse for laziness.  Often, we cannot see how annoying our behaviour is to other people.  Jesus hit the nail right on the head when He said that we should remove the plank from our eye before we try to remove it from our brother's eye.

What can we do about this tendency?  For a start we could listen occasionally to the kindly criticism of our friends.  If it is uninvited criticism, we don't like it.  We are offended by it, and immediately become defensive, or worse still aggressive.  We may think another person's assessment of us is not necessarily more accurate than our own.  But perhaps we could benefit from a friend's advice, when it is given lovingly and fairly.  If there is something objectionable in us, of which we are unaware, the sooner we know about it the better. Then at least we have a chance to do a bit of self-improving.

Is it really possible for adults to make any real changes in their lives?  We have all heard of the saying, "You cannot teach an old dog new tricks."  That is not always true.  Recently the Drug Squad were recruiting sniffer dogs, and they were particularly interested in older ones.  A dog they chose was seven years old.  They explained to the owner that it had the necessary liveliness and retrieving skills and so it could easily be taught to detect drugs.  So, you can teach old dogs, new tricks!  If this applies to dogs, it may well apply to humans. 

There are many examples among the saints.  Margaret of Cortona was in an illicit relationship and saw nothing wrong in her way of living, until one day she found the man she loved had been murdered.  This forced her to face the truth and admit to herself that she had been selfish and immoral.  Once she saw this, she was able to change and devote herself to a life of penance and care of the poor.

People can change, if they really want to. There are many success stories of former drug addicts or alcoholics who have overcome their addiction.  Hardened criminals have turned their lives around, and become useful citizens.  None of this is magic. It is hard work.  It is possible if first we could see our faults and genuinely want to change and then ask the help of the Holy Spirit. 

Lord Jesus, like the blind man in the Gospel we pray, "Lord, that I may see."  Help us to see our faults and with the help of the Holy Spirit reform ourselves.

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