Reflection for September 11, Friday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time: Luke 6:39-42

Gospel: Luke 6:39-42

Jesus told his disciples 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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Reflection:

What is the sure-fire recipe for failure in marriage? It’s the judgmental and self-righteous attitudes of both spouses. When a spouse is quick to draw judgment and if he/she only listens to himself/herself. We can be assured that somewhere down the road the marriage vehicle will stop and will eventually permanently break apart.

Many marriages fall apart because of the tunnel vision of many spouses. They run their respective marriages with dominance, they never allow democracy to grow and eventually thrive within the marriage covenant.

Marriage is always a democratic and participatory union. Never it has become an autocratic and one sided union between two different and unique individuals. Therefore the best recipe for success in marriage is not to allow judgmental mindset to rule the marriage. To allow democracy to carve its own space in the marriage.

In the gospel for this Friday, Jesus warns about being judgmental. Wherein we only choose to see the fault of the other person yet we purposely don’t notice our own shortcomings. We are quick to point an accusing finger yet we don’t have the courage and humility to point the same accusing finger to ourselves. – Marino J. Dasmarinas