As preached by Sister Cecelia
Holy Wisdom Church
The image of the beam in a person’s eye wanting to remove the speck in the neighbor’s eye is quite a visual picture. Picture it! It gives us an idea of just how far off our judgments of another can be. How accurate can our view of the other be if such a large object is blocking our view? There are times when we see actions of the other which annoy us. It is frequently our own disliked behavior we are projecting onto the other.
So how do we go about preventing ourselves from making these erroneous judgements?
Following this picture of bad judging Jesus tells us to ask and we will receive: to Seek and we will find. We are encouraged to ask for everything from the fulfillment of quite lofty ideals to the very humdrum of everyday tasks. When asking, we can be very specific, even to the smallest things. At the end of every request we make, though, pray that “your will be done, not mine” as you know, Lord, what will bring about the good for me and for whomever I am also asking.
Getting back to erroneous judgments, we see what we see but we must remember we cannot know the motivation behind another’s behavior. In St Paul’s epistle this morning the law to be upheld is the law to love our neighbor as ourselves, one of the Ten Commandments. We would all like our neighbor to give us the benefit of a doubt in our actions.
Perhaps wanting to remove the speck from another’s eye indicates a desire to help, to serve others. To serve others well we need to know what shortcomings in ourselves need to be worked on. To be able to face ourselves, to know ourselves, is what we need in the here and now. We can’t do that without God’s help. Again, ask and you shall receive, seek and you will find. Pray always and know yourself!
Spend time pondering this mystery of God being everywhere. Asking and seeking for this understanding leads us inexorably to the wonder of God’s creation. It leads us to experience the joy of seeing the sunrise or a sunset, the beauty of a flower, the exuberance of the dogs running in both the snow and fields of weeds. Seeing the faltering first steps of a puppy learning to walk can bring us to gratitude to the God who made all things.
How often pain and suffering have also caused us to turn our minds to God. While physical pain can be extremely difficult, the psychological pain of no longer experiencing the presence of God is more so. It takes faith to be able to wait patiently for God.
Peter and Paul, whose feast we celebrate today, surely had their share of both the joys and sorrows of serving their God. Peter needed a special vision to realize nothing created was profane. Paul needed a special vision to know he was persecuting Christ when he was persecuting the followers of Christ.
We need faith to believe that God is in all things created. God is not far away, being also within us, we can commune instantly. Much quicker than email.
Our time on earth is given us to get to know God even if only a little at a time.
