EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME C

[cappie]

In today’s readings we hear Jesus speaking in Galilee as well as a Jewish sage named Sirach writing in Jerusalem more than a century earlier. The two of them touch upon a single truth: The words that come out of us make known the hidden thoughts within us. Speech reveals the secrets of the heart.

The parables of Jesus recalled in this reading are so familiar that they have become proverbial: the blind leading the blind; the splinter in the brother’s eye, a tree known by its fruits. Luke wants us to recognise that - as part of the teaching of Jesus - these parables are far more than the expression of homely truths. They certainly do express truths that are applicable to every human situation - continuing the wisdom tradition of old Israel, so wonderfully expressed in the reading from the book of Ecclesiasticus. But the Good News of the Kingdom brought by Jesus (expressed in the teaching to the disciples we have already reflected upon) brings a truth far greater than has ever been expressed before. It is the promise of a new kind of existence, to be found by identifying with the ways of the living God - after the example of the One who is the revelation of the Father.

Luke invites us to find this deeper meaning that these parables had for Jesus. The ‘blindness’ Jesus warns against, especially for those who are leaders and guides in the community of disciples, is the blindness of those who assume the role of leadership although they have not  committed themselves to the Law of Love. Disciples who have not made this conversion will see living according to their old ways – placing selfish limits on their practical love for their neighbour - as no more than a tiny ‘splinter’ obscuring their vision. Such people do not recognise that presenting themselves as disciples of the Lord is kind of ‘hypocrisy’ – they make this clear by their readiness to point out the more obvious failings of their brothers and sisters. Genuine disciples will be known by their ‘fruits’: not in clever words or orations but in the witness of the quiet convictions that shape their lives – as, through the gift of Christ’s Spirit, the disciple grows ‘like his teacher.’

‘The good man draws what is good from the store of goodness in his heart.’ Again, when related to the central message of the teaching of Jesus, these words are more than wise advice about the conduct of our lives.

Jesus is speaking of the hearts of disciples - transformed by their acceptance of the ways of God after the example of Jesus, and putting no selfish limits to the love, or practical good will, they have towards their fellow human beings. . Jesus asks for a creative attitude which will make us capable of going and encountering others without judging them, without preconceptions and rationalizing, but accepting the brother. This total openness toward others considering them as brothers/sisters will arise in us only when we are capable of relating to God with total trust as His children.

We are all disciples in training, waiting to be "fully trained," when we will more perfectly reflect the life of Christ. Like Luke’s community, we continually need to hear again the instructions of the Teacher. Jesus is also speaking of himself as our teacher when he says, "No disciple is superior to the teacher, but when fully trained, every disciple will be like his/her teacher." The season of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday   we will have our hearts and minds further shaped by the Teacher and as a result we will increasingly become "like the teacher."

 In our Lenten journey to our baptismal renewal, we will commit ourselves again to our pilgrimage in community with Christ and each other. We will acknowledge that not all that has come from our individual and communal hearts has been the goodness Jesus describes. Not all the fruit from our trees has been nourishing for our members, or for others.

 Those who have found the joy of true discipleship will recognise that something of the ‘victory’ Paul speaks of can already be ours, even in this present life.