First reading Genesis 12:1-9
‘Leave your country, your family, and your father’s house’
The Lord said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your family and your father’s house, for the land I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name so famous that it will be used as a blessing.
‘I will bless those who bless you:
I will curse those who slight you.
All the tribes of the earth
shall bless themselves by you.’
So Abram went as the Lord told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had amassed and the people they had acquired in Haran. They set off for the land of Canaan, and arrived there.
Abram passed through the land as far as Shechem’s holy place, the Oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. The Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘It is to your descendants that I will give this land.’ So Abram built there an altar for the Lord who had appeared to him. From there he moved on to the mountainous district east of Bethel, where he pitched his tent, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord. Then Abram made his way stage by stage to the Negeb.
Responsorial Psalm 32(33):12-13,18-20,22
Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Blessed the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people he has chosen for his own inheritance.
From heaven the LORD looks down;
he sees all mankind.
See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
upon those who hope for his kindness,
To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.
Our soul waits for the LORD,
who is our help and our shield.
May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.
Gospel Matthew 7:1-5
Do not judge, and you will not be judged
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged; because the judgements you give are the judgements you will get, and the amount you measure out is the amount you will be given. Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the plank in your own? How dare you say to your brother, “Let me take the splinter out of your eye,” when all the time there is a plank in your own? Hypocrite! Take the plank out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye.’
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Who am I to judge?
We are often blind to our own faults but quick to focus on those of others. We can sometimes be obsessed with the minor failings of others to the point that we cannot see their goodness. Jesus tells us, “Do not judge…” because He wants us to look at others with mercy and recongise the good in them. These words might be a challenge for many of us, but Jesus trusts that we can look lovingly at people around us, even those we cannot get along with.
Thus, Jesus invites us to draw close to Him and experience Him looking at us, with our faults and all, with love. In the same way He loves us, we are called to practice mercy in our relationships with others. In this time of prayer, let us honestly look at ourselves and identify the plank we have, the concrete fault in our own lives and ask Jesus to help us be merciful towards ourselves so that we can be loving towards others.
Reflective question:
How can I look at others with mercy, not judgement?
How can I look at others with mercy, not judgement?
Acknowledgment: Reflections are based on “Prayer for Living: The Word of God for Daily Prayer Year A” by Sr Sandra Seow FMVD.
