Monday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
The Beam In Your Own Eye
Liturgical Cycle: A | Lectionary Cycle: II
Introduction
Year II. The Northern kingdom of Israel is punished for deserting God through the destruction of the country and the exile of its people.
Gospel. For people who walk side-by-side with the Lord, there is no room for superiority complexes that look down on the people around us to condemn them. We have all the same calling in Christ. Do we not often judge and condemn in others that which, consciously or unconsciously, we condemn in ourselves? At times, we even secretly rejoice that our brother or sister suffers from the same shortcoming to a greater extent than we do. If we apply the law to others, God will measure us with the same severity as the law. Let us look into ourselves and remove the beam from our own eyes before we discover the splinter in the eyes of others.
Opening Prayer
Lord our God,
We are people who have not yet seen
What you have prepared for us,
Yet, who have to take you on your word
and to walk forward in faith and hope.
Give us faith, Lord, a deep faith
that asks for no other certainty
than that you know where you lead us
and that all is well and secure
because you are our God and Father
who loves us forever and ever.
First Reading
The army of the king of Asshur subjected the whole of Israel, coming to Samaria and laying siege to it for three years.
In the ninth year of the reign of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, exiled the Israelites to Asshur and made them settle in Halah, at the banks of Habor, the river of Gozan, as well as in the cities of the Medes.
This happened because the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord, their God, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, where they were subject to Pharaoh. But they had turned back to other gods.
They followed the customs of the nations which the Lord had driven out before them.
The Lord warned Israel and Judah through the mouth of every prophet and seer, saying:“Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and precepts according to the laws which I commanded your fathers and which I have sent to you by my servants, the prophets.”
But they did not listen and refused, as did their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord, their God.
They despised his statutes, the covenant he had made with their fathers, and the warnings he had given them. They pursued worthless idols and became worthless, imitating the nations that surrounded them, despite what the Lord had said: “Do not do as they do.”
So the Lord became indignant with Israel and cast them far away from his presence, leaving only the tribe of Judah.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (7b) Help us with your right hand, O Lord, and answer us.
O God, you have rejected us and broken our defenses;
you have been angry; rally us!
R. Help us with your right hand, O Lord, and answer us.
You have rocked the country and split it open;
repair the cracks in it, for it is tottering.
You have made your people feel hardships;
you have given us stupefying wine.
R. Help us with your right hand, O Lord, and answer us.
Have not you, O God, rejected us,
so that you go not forth, O God, with our armies?
Give us aid against the foe,
for worthless is the help of men.
R. Help us with your right hand, O Lord, and answer us.
Alleluia Verse
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The word of God is living and effective,
able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Judging Others
Do not judge, and you will not be judged.
In the same way, you judge others, you will be judged; and the measure you use for others will be used for you.
Why do you notice the speck in your brother’s eye but ignore the plank in your own?
How can you tell your brother, ‘Come, let me take the speck from your eye,’ when you have a plank in your own?
Hypocrite, first remove the plank from your own eye, then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
Prayers of the Faithful
– Lord, do not allow us to take pleasure in judging people, but, like you, in pardoning them, we pray:
– Lord, let our faith be an act of trust that we are in your hands, you want our happiness, and you know where you lead us, we pray:
– That the awareness of our own shortcomings may dispose us to put aside our irritation at the mistakes of others, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Generous Father,
You give us your good gifts without measure,
For you are our Father.
Accept in these offerings of bread and wine
our willingness to learn from your Son
to love one another without measure,
to learn to understand one another
and to go together the ways of peace
of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Prayer after Communion
Lord God, our Father,
your Son came into the world
not to condemn it but to save it.
For this he gives himself to us
here in this eucharistic celebration.
Let us share in his attitude.
Make us look into our own hearts
and learn to see in our neighbour,
behind their faults and failures,
the face of him who came
to forgive and to fill us with his life,
Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Blessing
“Do not judge and you will not be judged.” The tendency among us is so strong and persistent that it is very difficult to eradicate. May God bless you to make you more deeply Christian, so that he can judge you more mildly: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
REFLECTIONS
Matthew 7:1-5
“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” - Mother Teresa of Kolkata
Reflecting on the theme of not judging others, Pope Francis says that “a person who judges always gets it wrong, becomes confused, and is defeated, because the one who judges puts himself in the place of God, who is the only judge. Taking God's place means he is taking the wrong place!" The Pope encourages us to defend others and avoid judging them.
Jesus calls those who judge others hypocrites. Our attitudes and behaviours are often controlled by our prejudices about others. Some people label others as good, bad, or evil - because they assume they have the right to condemn. Therefore, the Lord says, “Do not judge.” Period!
The Pope further clarified that when you judge someone, you become so obsessed with that person — sometimes losing sleep over that “speck” in the eyes of the other. That’s why such people have plenty to complain about – all those complaints are about “that speck”, and they believe they are doing the other a favour by helping to remove that speck. But the tragedy is that they are unaware of the log they have in their own eyes and get confused. In this way, one who judges is a person who “confuses reality”.
One who judges “becomes defeated,” says the Pope. They are definitively defeated because the same measure will be used to judge them, as Jesus says in the Gospel. In addition, one who judges always makes accusations, so the defeat goes even further.
In the Bible, the accuser is called devil, Satan. In the book of Revelation, we read about the accuser: “Now have salvation and power come, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Anointed. For the accuser of our brothers is cast out, who accuses them before our God day and night (Revelation 12:10). Therefore, judging others and accusing others is an act of the devil.
On the contrary, Jesus is the defender: he is before the Father to defend us against accusations. He is the first Paraclete. Then he invites the second, the Holy Spirit, to us. If we want to follow Jesus’ path, more than the accuser's, we must defend others. Jesus advised us to defend the defenceless. Do not complain and gossip; instead, defend the accused. Because gossip and complaints are forms of judging.
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Matthew 7: 1-5
It’s easier to destroy than to build
“Do not judge, so that you may not be judged” (Mt 7:1). With these words, Jesus invites us to tread lightly, to walk humbly, and to love deeply. Because truthfully, it is easier to destroy than to build.
Judging without mercy wounds deeply: How much harm we cause when we judge others recklessly! Harsh words, quick condemnations — they can tear down what took years to build: a friendship, a family bond, a community. I, too, have felt the sting of being judged unfairly, and I’ve also judged others in ways I regret. If we forget charity when we speak or act, we risk destroying not only others but ourselves. Before judging, we must ask: will this help or will it harm?
Look within: Jesus says: “Why do you see the speck in your brother’s eye, but not the log in your own?” It is a powerful image — because it is so true. How often do we criticise others while ignoring our own faults? Some sins are visible, others are hidden, but all of us are sinners in need of mercy. In God’s family, there are no first-class or second-class Christians. We are all children of the same Father, and we must look at one another with the same compassion with which He sees us.
Your brother matters: Christian life is not lived alone. God places people around us so that we may grow in love. Helping our brother, we help ourselves; judging him, we condemn ourselves. Every person is an opportunity to grow in grace. Every brother or sister is a sacred gift.
Let us then build, not destroy. Let us forgive, not accuse. Let us love, as Christ loves us.
Amen.