Luke 6:39-42 NRSVue

³⁹He also told them a parable: “Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit? ⁴⁰A disciple is not above the teacher, but every disciple who is fully qualified will be like the teacher. ⁴¹Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye but do not notice the log in your own eye? ⁴²Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.

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Some thoughts on this scripture

Reflection
Lord, when you tell me to hold off criticism until I have cleared my own slate, you are telling me not to criticise at all, because I am never above criticism myself. In the story of the adulterous woman, when you said: /Let the one without sin cast the first stone/, what happened? They went out, beginning with the eldest. Throwing stones, or bad-mouthing others, is an ignoble business. Taking to pieces is the trade of whose who cannot construct.

Reflection
Did it ever happen that you realised you were condemning another person for their faults and then realised that your own faults were just as many or more? Jesus uses the homely example of a failure to see the log in my eye and the ability to see the speck in the other's. It's just human to be like that. The ability to recognise personal shortcomings can be a grace of prayer!

Reflection
Maybe Jesus looked at somebody trying to take the speck out of the eye, or watched blind people leading each other. Everyday examples reminded him of life situations, of ways to speak his message. He looked around him and saw everywhere reminders of God, of life to the full. He spoke from the ordinary. Watch today for the love of God and the call of God in ordinary events and interchanges.