Clear Sight – 8th Sunday In Ordinary Time – Sermon by Father Levine

Fr. Joseph Levine; Holy Catholic Church and Missions, Burns, Oregon; March 2, 2025

Remove the wooden beam from your own eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.

Note, that Jesus does not forbid removing the splinter from a brother’s eye but rather insists on the priority of clarifying your own vision. Elsewhere, Jesus speaks very directly about the duty to correct your brother: If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. (Mt 18:15) Traditionally “fraternal correction” is counted as a duty of charity and “admonishing the sinner” is counted as a “spiritual work of mercy.”

We might be able to grasp the right order between removing the beam from our own eye and removing the splinter from our brother’s eye if we grasp that we are not just brothers in Christ, but also servants of Christ. As brothers there is a duty of mutual correction, to assist each other on the path of virtue; as fellow servants, we must rather each one be focused on our own task, paying heed to the words of St. Paul, Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? (Rm 14:4)

As servants of Christ, we each have been assigned our task (cf. Mk 13:34) and so it is not our place to judge our fellow servants, even if their work seems contrary to us. We could consider the example of David, when he was fleeing from Jerusalem to escape his rebellious son, Absalom, and was cursed by a man named Shimei; to his soldiers, who asked permission to put an end to Shimei, David says, Let him alone, and let him curse; for the Lord has bidden him. (2 Sam 16:11) David sees rightly that even the man who is acting wickedly does so only with the Lord’s permission, that all things serve God’s providence, that all creation and all human beings, whether they want it or not, are servants of God. For our part, as willing servants, we must remain focused on the task that the Lord has assigned us, without worrying about the working of the whole “household” or the work of our fellow servants.

It is only by starting as servants that we can become brothers in Christ and then even “friends of Christ.” He says, No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. (Jn 15:14) The path from being a mere servant who does not know his master’s work, to being a friend who is an intelligent collaborator in the work, who understands the plan and is “on the same page”, goes by way of obeying Christ’s commands, doing his will. (cf. Jn 15:13)

Now, St. Paul tells us: This is the will of God, your sanctification. (1 Th 4:3) This no more than what the Lord told Israel through Moses: Be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. (Lev 19:2) Well, the first step on the way to holiness and sanctification involves removing the beam from our own eye; that is also the first step on the way of becoming brothers in Christ, who says, Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother. (Mt 12:50)

The beam is whatever keeps us from seeing clearly, so as to do the will of God.

The biggest obstacle is a wrong or less than pure or imperfect intention. In this regard Jesus says, The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is not sound, your whole body will be full of darkness. It then the light in you is darkness, how great will that darkness be. (Mt 6:22-23) The wrong intention is the chief error of the Pharisees who did good works, praying, fasting, and giving alms, not for the Father who sees in secret, but in order to win the praise of men. (cf. Mt 6:1-6, 16-18) So St. Elizabeth Ann Seton tells us that we should do the will of God, in the manner he wills it, and because he wills it. (Liturgy of the Hours, Vol. I, pg. 1690) At the root of that “because” is our love for the Lord.  Purity of intention and purity of love go hand in hand.

At the same time there is an old saying, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Now, if the intention is truly good such a good intention will not land us in hell, but we easily deceive ourselves. There are other aspects of our interior life that influence our intention and are influenced by our intention, so if we fail to set those other parts of the “household” of our soul in order, then we will scarcely have a pure intention.

First, it is necessary for the mind to be free from error in matters of faith and rooted in reality and truth. When we are careless of truth and reality, then our intention can no longer be pure because we do not know what we should know. Then the erroneous ideas that we allow to take up residence in our minds set us on a wrong path. If you want to drive to Boise, but don’t know the difference between east and west and so end up in Bend no one will feel sorry for you when you say, “But I meant to go to Boise.”

Also, when the mind is not free from error or is lacking in reality, a person makes misguided judgments about others, judging by appearances rather than by truth, showing that even what he does know, he does not know as he should.

Second, the mind is not the same as the imagination but is heavily dependent on the imagination; a disordered imagination leads to a disordered mind. Disorder in the imagination distorts our perception of reality. That is one of the great dangers of our cyberspace/techno world; we become so accustomed to the artificial and the virtual that we no longer even understand the natural – like male and female. Nevertheless, the natural is primary. Here in Harney County the natural is inescapable, but we are not immune. If we are content to live in a world of fantasy and daydreams that contentment will corrupt our intention. Removing the beam from our eye requires that we seek to set our imagination in order, making sure it is rooted in reality.

Third we must address also the emotions. Emotional turmoil and confusion cloud the judgment. When we are subject to the emotions we no longer act according to the truth, but according to what “seems right” or what “feels right” – to me. That typically boils down to what “feels good” because the emotions are very self-interested. The emotion driven intention is no longer pure, even if it “feels” like it.

Removing the beam from my own eye is not merely a matter of self-examination. Above all my heart needs to be purified by faith, letting the word of God enter my mind and heart, rule my intention, illumine my mind, set in order my imagination, purify my emotions, and direct my actions.

Ruled by the word of God, I will also let his providence reveal the beam in my own eye. When a sieve is shaken, the husk appears … tribulation tests the just. Through what he allows me to suffer, God reveals to me my faults, and though difficult to receive, in truth this is a great gift. When I can accept affliction with peace and gratitude, then God himself begins to remove the beam from my eye and does so much more effectively than I could ever do on my own.

In the measure that the beam is removed from our eye, and we begin to see clearly, then we are actually able to help each other as brothers or sisters, fathers or mothers. Correction, as an act of mercy and charity does not seek to condemn or to lay burdens on others but seeks to help and to guide on the path to God. This difference of attitude is expressed in the very words used, which instead of being accusatory will presume the best of the other. Instead of saying, “You are doing wrong…”, the brother will say to a brother, “Are you aware that…”

Correction can also be a duty, especially for fathers and mothers, which gives urgency to the work of removing the beam from our eye; we must fulfill our duty, whether we are up to it or not. Well, I guess we are all somewhere on the way, so that means we will sadly make mistakes and that will be another way in which the beam is removed from our eye, when we learn to humble ourselves and apologize for our mistakes.

We are, or should be, on the way together. And where does that way lead? To God himself. The more the beam is removed from our own eye, the more we begin to see clearly, the more our attention is focused on God, the more do we see God in all things, including our neighbor and brother, the more we are focused on giving thanks to God for his great gift and the less we become preoccupied with our neighbors faults, except to assist him as a brother along the way.

Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God.  (Mt 5:8)