The Gospel for the memorial of St. John Chrysostom, Bishop and doctor of the Church, is taken from Luke 6:38, 42. Jesus told his disciples a parable Can a blind person guide? A blind person will not both fall into a pit. Notice I superior to the teacher. But when fully trained, every disciple will be like his teacher.

Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own? How can you say to your brother, brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye? You hypocrite, Remove the wooden beam from your eye first, then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye. Jesus is preparing men to go out and to heal and to help people. And we know that the main thing that he longs for them to have toward these people is deep empathy and compassion. And one of the things that we see in this image of the beam in ourselves and the speck in someone else’s eye is that we need to be dealing with our own issues first.

We need to understand what it’s like to go through a process of transformation in order to help others do it. The major difference will be that we will not tell them what to do, but open them to ways in which they can grow. Take this time to reflect on these thoughts and I will close with a prayer. Closing Prayer Father, you desire that we be healed by your grace is not simply to make us more pleasing to you, but to make us more effective in working with our brothers and sisters. Give us wisdom and let that wisdom guide us. And we ask this in Jesus name.

Amen.