Friday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time

“The Parable of the Blind Leading the Blind” 
by Pieter Bruegel (the Elder), 1568

Readings for Friday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time [1][2]

 

Readings from the Jerusalem Bible

 

Commentary:

 

Reading 1: 1 Timothy 1:1-2, 12-14

 

Commentary on 1 Tm 1:1-2, 12-14

 

St. Paul begins his First Letter to Timothy introducing himself as an Apostle of Jesus.  “Present gratitude for the Christian apostleship leads Paul to recall an earlier time when he had been a fierce persecutor of the Christian communities (cf Acts 26:9-11) until his conversion by intervention of divine mercy through the appearance of Jesus. This and his subsequent apostolic experience testify to the saving purpose of Jesus' incarnation.”[4]

 

“Through the graces he has received, the virtues of faith and love have been manifested in Paul.  Faith and love are fundamental virtues characterizing the Christian.  At times (as here and in Ephesians 3:17; Ephesians 6:23; Philemon 5), faith and love are mentioned alone; at other times, the virtue of hope is added (1 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Corinthians 13:13)”[5]

 

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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 16:1b-2a and 5, 7-8, 11

 

R. (see 5) You are my inheritance, O Lord.

 

Commentary on Ps 16:1b-2a and 5, 7-8, 11

 

Psalm 16 is an individual hymn of praise.  The psalmist prays that God will shield the faithful from harm and expresses confidence in the Lord’s salvation; closing the passage with praise for God’s loving mercy.  This selection is structured to support the Pauline ideal of placing God first in the life of the psalmist, their greatest possession being loved by God and loving God in return.

 

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Gospel

Luke 6:39-42

 

Commentary on Lk 6:39-42

 

St. Luke continues Jesus’ dialogue from the “Sermon on the Plain” concerning the judgment of others.  Taking his disciples aside he tells them that in time they will assume his role in proclaiming the Gospel (“…but when fully trained, every disciple will be like his teacher”).  The exhortation that follows is not intended to say that they should not notice the failings of others; that would be inconsistent with Matthew 7:5, 6.  Rather “…against passing judgment in a spirit of arrogance, forgetful of one's own faults.”[6]

 

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Reflection:

 

Today we reflect upon the two edges of the sword of justice, judgment and forgiveness.  In St. Luke’s Gospel, Jesus teaches his disciples through the parable of the Blind Leading the Blind.  His intention is to insure that, in light of the authority given to them as disciples of the Son of Man, they do not become judgmental.  His teaching implicitly instructs them to look first at their own failings before passing judgment on others.

 

Does this mean we should ignore others when they behave in ways that are contrary to the Lord’s Great Commandment?  Should we meekly turn a blind eye to our brothers and sisters who consciously fail to love God, others or him or herself? The answer is “no.” It is more clearly expressed in St. Matthew’s Gospel when the Lord says “’Do not … throw your pearls before swine’” (Matthew 7:5).  We have an obligation to lead others to the promise of Christ.  What we do not do is judge the person.  We judge the action or act (cliché is “Love the sinner, hate the sin”).

 

Once the action is confronted, culpability for sin must be left to God alone.  “The prerogative of receiving the confession of sin and the power to forgive sin are two things that belong properly to God alone”, as the Blessed Isaac of Stella says in one of his sermons[7].  In that same great sermon he goes on to describe that God in Christ, wedded to his bride the Church, has given all things to her and one of those gifts is the delegated authority of expressing God’s love and forgiveness (however, were his bride somehow separated from him, there could be no forgiveness flowing from her).  If this were not so, how would we come to understand his great love for us? 

 

We see in St. Paul’s own testimony how even his grievous sins against the Bride of Christ were forgiven.  How much more will he forgive us who are working diligently to do his will?  It is a complex balance we observe – between judgment and forgiveness.  Our prayer today is that we always fail on the side of love and seek first the log in our own eye.

 

Pax

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[1] S.S Commemoratio

[2] The picture is “The Parable of the Blind Leading the Blind” by Pieter Bruegel (the Elder), 1568

[4] See NAB footnote on 1 Tm 1:12-17

[5] See Jerome Biblical Commentary, Prentice Hall, Inc., © 1968, 57-14 (Expanded notation and hyperlinks added)

[6] See NAB footnote on Matthew 7:1

[7] Sermo 11: PI. 194, 1728-1729