Fr Alan's Weekly Reflection

Taking the plank out

There is the story of a young monk who committed a serious sin. The other monks in the community gathered to deliberate over what punishment he should receive. They called for the Abbot and they would not decide anything until he got there. The Abbot came. He was carrying an old basket which was full of holes. Filling it with sand he carried it behind him. Naturally as he walked along, he left a trail of sand in his wake. When the other monks saw this they asked him why he was carrying the basket full of sand when the basket had so many holes? The Abbot simply said "everywhere I go I leave a trail of faults behind me, only most of the time I don’t see them myself." He then went on to say, “And today you want me to sit in judgement on my brother?” On hearing this the other monks were ashamed of themselves. Subsequently they abandoned any plans of passing judgement on the young monk and pardoned him.

Today’s Gospel is all about passing judgement on others. Jesus warns that we can be so quick to judge others that we quite often don’t see the faults in ourselves. It is a fact that we can be unaware of certain facts about ourselves which are perfectly clear to anyone who has ever worked or lived with us. It is an uncomfortable truth that what we don’t like to see in others is often present in ourselves.

The challenge that today’s Gospel sets before us is to be positive about all other people and accept them for who they are.

There is another story where a grandmother brought her granddaughter to Gandhi. She asked him to help her granddaughter to stop eating so many sweets. Gandhi replied, “bring her back next week.” The grandmother did what Gandhi had asked her and presented her granddaughter to him the following week. She received the same reply “bring her back next week.” This went on for four weeks. On the last occasion Gandhi said to the granddaughter, “Stop eating so many sweets.” The grandmother was exasperated and said to Gandhi “you mean to say I had to bring back my own granddaughter for 4 weeks in a row just to hear you say that? Why?” Gandhi replied, “It has taken me that long to stop eating too many sweets myself.”

 As Christians of course we should be concerned about others. However, we cannot guide others unless we see the way clearly ourselves.