“Wives submit to your husbands,” the priest proclaimed as he commented on the reading from Ephesians. With that, John smiled complacently and nudged his wife with his elbow. Then the priest continued, “Husbands love your wives as Christ loves the Church.” Emily glowed and returned an even harder nudge into John’s ribs.
Why is it so easy to apply admonitions of Scripture to other people, but almost impossible to apply them to ourselves?
Jesus explains the reason today. We are blind.
“Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit…Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?”
If we went in for an eye examination and the doctor had a huge piece of wood sticking out of his eyes, would be trust his advice? We’d realize that he has a problem much worse than ours.
We, of course, think we have two eyes. Jesus keeps reminding us that we have three, and that the third eye is the most important of all—it is the eye of the heart. Physically blind people can sometimes see better with their hearts than those with 20/20 vision. In this teaching, Jesus, of course, is talking about the disease of “heart blindness.” In the opening story it seems that both John and Emily had this disease.
Jesus presses the point:
“How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the splinter in your eye,’ when you do not notice the wooden beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first, then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.”
During these challenging times when we might feel the urge to jump in and start fixing problems in our families, the Church, and our country, we, first, must deal with the beams in our own eyes. It is always important to get regular “eye examinations.” We forget that our “beams” are part of the problem that we are trying to resolve.
How is my prayer life these days? What in my personal life needs to be changed? What mission is God calling me to at this time? What decision do I need God’s discernment on?
These are four questions that the “Eye Doctor” asks us.
In Christian tradition, those who took the pursuit of holiness seriously, tried to find a spiritual director to help them answer these questions. Meeting regularly with this person, they would seek to deal with such things as “beams” in the eyes of their hearts. When I prefer to be my own spiritual director, guess what? I end up being just like John and Emily—an expert on the splinters of others and blind to my own beam.
If we haven’t made arrangements for an “eye examination,” maybe now is the time to do so. We will be of little use to addressing the crises in our times, if we do not see clearly God’s plan for our own lives.
“My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God” (Ps 84:4).
