Memorial of Saint John Chrysostom, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
“I am grateful to him who has strengthened me...because he considered me trustworthy in appointing me to the ministry.” (I Timothy 1:12) I appreciate Paul’s words of gratitude to Jesus in today’s first reading. Paul, who had previously been a terrible persecutor of the early Christian community, was shown God’s mercy and forgiveness. He was humbled in a much-needed way on that road to Damascus, and is now thankful that he has been found “trustworthy” despite his past, to minister to other Christian disciples.
As today’s gospel reading from Luke points out, the blind cannot effectively lead the blind. Paul had been literally blinded by the light of Christ during his conversion experience, but was figuratively blind to his own arrogance and self-serving prior to that. Now, writing as one who has had the “wooden beam” removed from his own eye, he is able to humbly and mercifully lead and minister to the Christian community.
I can appreciate Paul’s gratitude as I reflect on the ministries I believe God has called or “appointed” me to -- spiritual direction, counseling, even parenting -- finding me “trustworthy” of these vocations. Although I don’t have the kind of past that Paul did, I am still in need of God’s humbling mercy and grace. In order to ensure that it is not the “blind leading the blind,” I am reminded of the importance of maintaining those practices that allow me to recognize what is obstructing my own sight -- and ask for the grace and strength to remove it.
Let us pray this week for the humility to recognize the beam in our own eye before trying to remove the splinter in our brother’s or sister’s. Trusting that, as the psalmist proclaims with clear sight, God will “show me the path to life” so that we might help others see more clearly.
~Eileen Miller