Reflection...

I wrote this reflection to share at our Thursday morning prayer. Due to a mix-up someone else preached. I had already prepared this reflection and figured I would post it on the blog anyways.

Matthew 7:1-8
1 "Stop judging, that you may not be judged.
2 For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you. 3 Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove that splinter from your eye,' while the wooden beam is in your eye? 5 You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother's eye. 6 "Do not give what is holy to dogs, or throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them underfoot, and turn and tear you to pieces. 7 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.


As has happened in many of my relationships with others, since I have been attending school at St. John’s I have become the unofficial spokesperson for all things Catholic and theological. Any time a statement is issued I am able to guarantee an influx of calls from family and friends wanting me to explain certain aspects of the statement. Questions are a good thing- they are beneficial to our development and understanding of humanity. The hard part is figuring out what the answer is. But it seems to me that the easiest way to answer questions about theology is to direct the questioner to a book that will provide one argument for one point of the question. I really don’t like this, in fact I readily state, “The last thing I need is one more book to read!” (please take note that I am a book-a-phile!)

I was taken aback with how a conversation progressed. It was in the middle of a conversation on Sunday with one of my best friends and he was asking me some questions about Catholicism. As a former Catholic himself he knew how to spin certain parts of the Catholic tradition to make it ridiculous to make his point. (Please remember that I have no problem pointing out what I find ridiculous-but Josh can take this to a new level!) In order to make my point, I uttered some words that I don’t know I would have said three years ago. I said, “Josh, there is a great book that you should read!”. His response was to say in exasperation, “Why is it that whenever I ask you a question you always tell me to read a book?” Well, what a rude awakening!
Talk about needing to remove a forest from my eyes!!!!

This is one of the most difficult parts of the Christian message for me. The daily living- or calling out to attend to my own struggles is hardest for me. I am not perfect and readily recognize this fact- but I do like to think that I am aware of my statements!

The last two verses about knocking, asking, receiving have never really struck me as Lenten verses. But as I continued to meditate on this scripture- I began to wonder what would happen to people who claim to be Christians if they asked for the courage to be honest with themselves? That is really the claim in the reading- we need to be honest about how we are, how we interact with others- and not just the people that we know- or those that build us up. We need to be honest enough to be with those that we find challenging, those that don’t always build us up-or those that we struggle to build up.