Reading
Luke 6:39-42
39 He also told them this parable: “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into a pit? 40 The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.
41 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
Comment
Jesus warns his disciples against spiritual pride by using the image of the blind leading another blind man (also present in Mt 15:14 where it refers to the Pharisees); of the relationship between the disciple and the teacher; of the man with a beam in his eye trying to remove the speck from another man's eye (a hyperbolic image also present in some rabbinic texts).
We must pay attention to the teachers we choose, to the Pharisees of yesterday and today. Those who are blinded by pride, prejudice, and bigotry cannot lead to salvation. But even those who allow themselves to be guided by the opinions and customs of this world advance in the dark and cannot lead to the light.
By baptism, we are all guides because we are made sharers in the one priesthood of Christ. The guiding principle is therefore not outside of us but radiates from within and communicates itself to others to the extent that we make ourselves permeable to his action, annihilating our ego. Jesus was the perfect model of this self-denial, as the centurion recognized when he saw him expire on the cross: "Surely this was a righteous man" (Lk 23:47).
The true teacher is the one who knows how to lead his disciples to the awareness of this interior light, "the true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world" (Jn 1:9), that "bottom" of the soul which is our image and likeness with God.
Prayer
Let your Spirit, o Lord, guide us in right discernment, sheltering us from hypocrisy and rash judgments, and conforming us to your holiness. Amen.
- Rev. Dr. Luca Vona
