On this 25th Anniversary of 9/11, how fitting are the readings about hypocrisy and the blind leading the blind.
“You hypocrite!” When I hear that phrase from Luke, I think of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. “I’m not like that!” It’s an open-and-shut case, not me. But immediately, I sense another “beam in my eye”! Why?
There are so many levels of hypocrisy. Removing the beam is not just about relative fairness; i.e., “I am not better than my brother.” It is equally about hypocritical actions stemming from the loss of a God-focused vision. In Luke’s passage, the blind cannot lead the blind, especially if we can’t navigate our own paths. This applies to individuals and nations alike.
Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians discusses the sacred obligation to evangelize. To be effective, humility is required; to see things as God sees them; to preach scripture as it is written; to be a member of the Church as it was intended; and most importantly, to see myself as God sees me. If God sees a beam in my eye, then I must acknowledge that same beam and remove it. If I do not, then I cannot truly do his will. If I lead the blind while I am blind, I will lead them away from God’s vision and drag them along the path of my lesser vision. Again, this applies to individuals and nations alike.
For us to live a Catholic life of faith, we must evangelize that faith into action with a clear, unobstructed, unhypocritical eye on God.
Sometimes it is comforting to assign the beam some rhetorical meaning or symbolic significance, but in reality, the beam in my eye is real, and it is me!
Prayer:
Father, when I remove a beam from my eye to do your will, please help me not replace it with another beam. Father, when nations do the same, take the beam away from them.
