Luke 6: 39-42
Jesus told his disciples a parable: “Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully qualified will be like the teacher. Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or 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.”
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
See Clearly to Love
St. Ignatius was always concerned with interior freedom—what prevents us from seeing God, ourselves, and others clearly?
Ignatius believed that sin is not merely breaking rules; it is a disordering of our loves and desires. We become attached to our own opinions, our pride, our need to be right, our impatience, or our self-image. Those attachments become the “beam in your eye”.
The tragedy is not simply that we have a beam in our eye—it is that we often don’t know it’s there. St. Ignatius repeatedly asks for the grace of knowledge of my sins and knowledge of the deceits of the enemy. Not to produce shame, but to produce freedom. Once the beam is removed, we finally see clearly enough to love rather than merely criticize.
—Danny Monistere is a member of the Board of Trustees for Montserrat Jesuit Retreat House in Lake Dallas, TX. He is a member of Sacred Heart of Jesus Chinese Parish in Plano, TX.
Prayer
Lord,
What is it that keeps me from seeing as You see?
Perhaps the beam is pride.
Perhaps impatience.
Perhaps the need to control.
Perhaps fear.
Perhaps the desire to be recognized.
Give me the grace to see myself truthfully, to receive Your healing without defensiveness, and then to see others through Your eyes rather than my own.
Remove whatever blinds me, so that my presence may guide rather than mislead, heal rather than wound, and love rather than judge.
Amen.
—Danny Monistere