He Looked Beyond My Fault
Father Phil Paxton, CP
To All,
In our Gospel reading for Sunday (Luke 6:39-45), Jesus offers us a challenge that still pertains to today: “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,’ when you do not even 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.”
It is oh so easy to recognize the faults and failings of others, and not to take a hard look at ourselves! We can easily be tempted to appoint ourselves as the ones fit to correct others. In fact, some people can be quite accurate in their assessment of others, but have a blind spot when it comes to themselves. We can even get tempted to pass judgment on others and condemn them. And that is when the “wooden beams” in our eyes can cause real damage. It is such blindness accompanied by a rush to condemnation that has resulted in failing to see the humanity of the “other” and has justified violence towards entire groups of people.
Rushing to condemnation of others is not the way of Jesus (John 3:17). There is an old hymn sung to the melody of “Londonderry Air,” entitled “He Looked Beyond My Fault.” There is only one verse to the hymn, which ends “He looked beyond my fault and saw my need.” This is how God has been with us! God did not wait until we were perfectly good to send the Son of God into the world to save it. While we were still sinners, Jesus gave of Himself on the Cross for the forgiveness of our sins! God did not treat with us the way we deserve. Thanks be to God! And yet, we feel so justified in judging and condemning others. What if we stopped taking the time to point out the faults of others, and instead, saw to their needs? Let me try to give an example. Suppose I see that someone is not doing all he can do. The “wooden beam” in my eye assumes that he is lazy, or even worse, that all people like him are lazy. But if that “wooden beam” of self-righteousness or prejudice was removed, I might see clearly that the person is suffering from depression, or has given in to despair, and I can try to help him see that he need not give up on himself.
How do we take out the “wooden beams” from our own eyes, in order to see clearly to help others? I’ve seen some attempts at depicting someone with a wooden beam in his or her eye, and of course, these depictions look unreal. But it may be more helpful to imagine another piece of wood, the Cross of Christ, and instead of having it in our eye, we might be willing to place the Cross of Christ into our hearts. When we take in the love and mercy Jesus shows us from the Cross, we are able to take out the “wooden beams” from our eyes (and hearts), and see others as God sees them.
Condemnation and contempt are not the work of Jesus. They are not the work we are called to do. Instead, we are called to see the needs of others, and do what we can to help them. And part of that may be to help them see clearly about themselves. Someone sent me a quote a long time ago from Cardinal Suenens, who did a lot, if I remember correctly, to help bring about the reforms of Vatican II. The quote is this: “The greatest good we do to others is not to give them our wealth but to show them their own.”
May our eyes and our hearts be opened, and in the words of Jesus, may we as individuals and as a church, grow as “good trees” that bear “good fruit.”
I welcome any comments or questions. Thanks for your time.
In Christ,
Phil, CP