12th Week in Ord. Time, Monday – 22nd June 2020 — Gospel: Mt 7,1-5
Self-awareness and self-correction
Jesus urges us to have self-awareness and prioritizes self-correction before we sit to make judgment over the lives of others. Using the literary form of hyperbole, Jesus humorously illustrates hypocrisy with the speck and the long. A small speck in our brother’s eye is contrasted with a giant log in our own eyes. Living in a fallen world, it is our second nature to think and speak low of others, while we have a high esteem about ourselves. Jesus points out that self-righteousness leads to a faulty view of ourselves. Our own wounds and blind spots make it impossible for us to see other people as God sees them. We must learn to know ourselves, to truly understand our unique personality, our prejudices, our talents, our weak points, our strengths, the hidden fears that are underneath our obvious motivations. This is much harder for us to do. And yet, unless we do that, we simply cannot see the truth of other people. Psychology states that people complain of particular faults in others because they are not able to correct those faults in their own lives. Thus a person who is impatient will condemn the lack of patience in other people. Likewise an individual who lacks self-control will be upset with the failure in their family members or co-workers to exercise will power. Therefore, Jesus invites us to examine our own lives, to see what aspects of our lives we need to improve and correct.
