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And Jesus told them a parable, “Can a blind person
guide a blind
person? Will not both fall into a
pit? No disciple is 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."
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"Everyday
is so wonderful, then suddenly, it’s hard to
breathe," Christiana Aguilera sings in her song "Beautiful." "Now and then I get insecure, from all the pain,
I’m so ashamed. I am beautiful no
matter what they say. Words can’t bring me
down. I am beautiful in every single way. Yes, words can’t bring me down, so
don’t you
bring me down today." The problem is,
however,
that words can bring us down, and often do.
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We
talk about others
all the time. It is part of life, it is
what conversation is made of. But Jesus
warns us about our own glass houses as we throw stones at
others. We talk about others in an evil way. We can criticize
constructively, but often we
do not. Instead, we simply tear down the
reputation of others.
This is such a difficult doctrine, this thought of not hurting others by our words. We usually don’t like the people that we are hurting by our speech and those people most probably are not going to change. We are still going to dislike them, and the complaining can become chronic, and it almost becomes a pattern of our existence. Someone has to break the pattern. Christina Aguilera in her song “Beautiful” conveys what words do to a person—they bring them down, and it is a real struggle to bring them back to what is the truth. She sings such a truth—“I am beautiful in every single way.” We are all beautiful because we are all created by God. If there is a category of “major sins,” this is one of them. We criticize, judge, and talk others down. In Jesus’ words, we don’t look at the beam in our own eyes as we try to call everyone’s attention to the splinter in others. We must watch our words—the people we are talking about really are “beautiful,” no matter what we say about them. |
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THOUGHT
Why do people like to
talk others down?
PRAYER Good and gracious God, your Son spoke strong words about
people who talk
about others. We know that we do that at
times. Give us the grace to truly
recognize what we are doing in our speech about others, and help us
stop the
evil words. Be with us we pray.
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©2007 Capuchin
Province of Mid-America
Fr. Mike Scully is a member of the Capuchin Province of Mid-America |