Eighth Sunday In Ordinary Time Year C- An Ophthalmologist And A Psychologist

Doctor Jesus is like an ophthalmologist and a psychologist in our Gospel today.

He is speaking about projection. We get impatient with others who represent aspects of ourselves that we have pushed away.1 We are aware of all the mitigating factors that go into our own mistakes but not those influencing others. 2

Situation: Your kid says, “I got a bad report card.” The splinter in the eye: “The teacher is weird.”

The wooden beam in the kid’s eye: “What were my study habits like?”

Situation: Your kid says, “I didn’t get my full allowance.” The splinter: My parents are unfair. The wooden beam: Which tasks did I not do?” [cf. Boundaries, Cloud, Thompson]

The remedy, as a retreat director recommended: Call to mind a person that you find hard to take and then recount in detail the characteristics that make the person so obnoxious to you.

Then, go to your room and ask God to forgive those same faults in yourself.

An examination of conscience is necessary before fraternal correction. We tend to be blind to our faults and hyperconscious of others. St. Josemaría recommended checking with a mature third party who knows you both before making a fraternal correction.”3

The early rabbis were very familiar with the well-known teaching about the splinter and beam, and they recognized that if one saw his fellow commit a sin, he must reprove him, and thus endeavor to bring him back to the better way of life. For this task of reproving, they had the warrant of Leviticus 19:17, “Do not hate a fellow Israelite in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in their guilt.”

Yet, the rabbi’s complained that no one would even accept a correction because of pride. Many of the ancient rabbi’s complained, “There is not one in this generation who is able to receive reproof.”4

Thus, when you are in a healthy relationship with yourself, you can, "Check The Fruits, Fix The Roots”

e.g. A wife said: “When I look at my husband… what I see is that I worry a lot about money and feel that Don should too. So, I accused him of not acting responsibility when in fact he’s very responsible. What made me “see red” was his peace of mind about money. What I really want is my own peace of mind regarding money and I was angry that he has it, and I don’t. This awareness doesn’t mean that I never lose my cool around money issues, but I do it less now that I understand where my impatience is coming from. 5

But we can’t "Check The Fruits, Fix The Roots, if we don’t have engagement with ourselves.

e.g.

Intellectualizing can be a defense mechanism which uses reason to avoid an unconscious conflict and associated emotional stress. One concentrates on the intellectual components of the situation to create distance from anxiety provoking emotions. Thus, it effectively removes oneself, emotionally, from a stressful event. Intellectualization hides emotions behind big words and an almost scientific focus on the facts. For example, a wife whose husband is dying may try to learn everything about his disease, its prognosis, and treatment options. She may talk about it in scientific terms, analyzing and describing the medical facts about his condition. Doing so may help her not to feel all the pain, anger, and onslaught of other emotions provoked by the imminent death of her beloved.

The cure would be to join a bereavement group and let in the grace of God.

Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen said, “It is a law of nature that no one ever gets his second wind until he has used up his first wind. So, it is with knowledge. Only when we practice the moral truths which we already know will a deeper understanding of those truths and a fuller revelation come to us. Each new height the mind reveals must be captured by the will before greater heights come into view.”

As this closing illustration implicitly exemplifies:

A wise man was once threatened with death by a bandit called Angulimal.

“Then be good enough to fulfill my dying wish,” said the wise man. “Cut off the branch of that tree.”

One slash of the sword, and it was done! “What now?” asked the bandit.

Put it back again,” said the wise man.

The bandit laughed. “You must be crazy to think anyone can do that.”

“On the contrary, it is you who are crazy to think that you are mighty because you can wound and destroy. That is the task of children. The mighty know how to create and heal.”

Jesus is called the "Wonderful Counselor" in Isaiah 9:6

He can make us well and see clearly.

1. cf. John A. Sanford, The Kingdom Within: The Inner Meaning of Jesus' Sayings, book, August 11, 2009, pg. 67