Gospel: September 13, 2024

(Friday)

23rd Week in Ordinary Time

Psalter: Week 3 / White)

St. John Chrysostom, bishop & doctor

Responsorial Psalm: Ps: 84: 3, 4, 5-6, 12

How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!

1st Reading: 1 Corinthians 9: 16-19, 22b-27

Because I cannot boast of announcing the Gospel: I am bound to do it. Woe to me, if I do not preach the gospel! If I preached voluntarily, I could expect my reward, but I have been trusted with this office, against my will. How can I, then, deserve a reward? In announcing the gospel, I will do it freely, without making use of the rights given to me by the gospel.

So, feeling free with everybody, I have become everybody’s slave, in order to gain a greater number.

So, I made myself all things to all people, in order to save, by all possible means, some of them. This, I do, for the gospel, so that I, too, have a share of it.

Have you not learned anything from the stadium? Many run, but only one gets the prize. Run, therefore, intending to win it, as athletes, who impose upon themselves a rigorous discipline. Yet, for them the wreath is of laurels which wither, while for us, it does not wither.

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So, then, I run, knowing where I go. I box, but not aimlessly in the air. I punish my body and control it, lest, after preaching to others, I myself should be rejected.

Gospel: Luke 6: 39-42

And Jesus offered this example, “Can a blind person lead another blind person? Surely both will fall into a ditch. A disciple is not above the master; but when fully trained, he will be like the master.

So why do you pay attention to the speck in your brother’s eye, while you have a log in your eye, and are not conscious of it? How can you say to your neighbor, ‘Friend, let me take this speck out of your eye,’ when you can’t remove the log in your own? You hypocrite! First remove the log from your own eye, and then you will see clearly enough to remove the speck from your neighbor’s eye.

Reflection: “Recognizing our limitations.”

Being merciful to others increases our capacity for self-introspection. Likewise, the more self-introspective we are, the more merciful we become. We would refrain from judging other people if we keep growing in self-knowledge. Self-introspection increases self-knowledge. Self-knowledge helps us grow in terms of self-acceptance, including our own limitations. When we have learned accepting our own limitations, we shall have better capacity accepting the limitations of other people as well. This is so because we often tend to see the limitations of others while failing to see our own. Today, we continue our reflection on the Lucan Sermon on the Plain. Jesus challenges us to first remove the log from our own eyes before trying to remove the speck from other people’s eyes. We can only point out the areas in which other people may grow after seeing with clarity the areas in which we also need to grow. Moreover, we tend to look for scapegoats because we cannot carry our own sins. Scapegoating is an applied hypocrisy. As Christians, we are called to do otherwise. The way of the cross is to carry other people’s sins. As human beings, we can only carry the sins of others after learning to carry our own.