Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, March 2, 2025

2025 Mar 2 SUN: EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Sir 27: 4-7/ Ps 92: 2-3. 13-14. 15-16/ 1 Cor 15: 54-58/ Lk 6: 39-45

Have you ever heard this expression: "Just sayin'"? I hear that and this is how I translate it. "I'm going to pass along some information to you and it may be distasteful to you, but I am distancing myself from it. Please don't hit me." That's how I feel about that statement.

And it certainly goes against the idea which we hear very clearly from the book of Sirach and from the gospel today, that every one of us is responsible for the words we say.

There's another example. In the online world, there is a lot of reposting that goes on, reposting done by people who don't even know for sure if the original post is true. So we have to consider how we take responsibility for what we say. And as Jesus tells us, it comes from what is stored in our heart. And he gives us another image of a good tree bearing good fruit. We have to ask ourselves, "What is my participation in my social situations doing? Is it building up or not?" 

And of course, I'm sure that Jesus was having fun with these images that he gives us, especially the one about seeing the splinter in someone else's eye when your own vision is impaired. You say, "Let's take the splinter out of your eye" when all the time you have a 2x4 in your own eye. That's pretty obvious. It certainly means that before [we] seek to criticize, it is necessary for us to examine ourselves and recognize that there is much to be corrected in our own personality. Therefore, we can have that experience and, "Okay, yeah, that's out of my eye. I'm seeing a little more clearly. And maybe I am in a position to correct." But then again, we come around and we realize that every one of us has faults, and we might do people a lot of good if we are patient with them. That often is much, much better. 

We think about these things as we conclude St. Paul's reflections on the gift of resurrection. He reflects on the mystery of Jesus and says, "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" And he's pointing us to Jesus who won the victory for us, and we can never forget that the victory was won because he truly died. He died with us and for us. He chose to undergo what you and I have no choice about, and he has lifted us up.