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."
In today’s Gospel we have the second part of the “discourse on the plain.” In the first part (Lk 6: 20-26), Jesus addresses Himself to the disciples (Lk 6: 20). In the second part (Lk 6: 27-49), He addresses Himself “to you who listen to Me,” that is, the great crowds of poor and sick people, who had come from all parts (Lk 6: 17-19)
The Gospel reading is taken from St. Luke (Lk 6:17, 20-26). Jesus then went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also designated apostles: Simon, his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot. He then came down the mountain with them and delivered the sermon on the plain which is our reading for today.
by Excerpted from The Sunday Readings by Fr. Kevin O'Sullivan, O.F.M
The Gospel is a reading from St. Luke (Lk 5:1-11). How the wisdom of God differs from the wisdom of men! If a businessman of today (or even of the year 28 A.D.) were choosing a chairman and assistants for the world-wide enterprise he was about to set up, is it likely that he would choose them from among the unknown, unlettered fishermen of Galilee? Yet Christ, who was about to set up not only a world-wide institute but an everlasting one, chose these simple fishermen and made them his assistants and his successors in the work that he had taken in hand.