What have you done to correct your own shortcomings, which in turn enabled you to correct others? - Daily Reflections September 13,2013

TO SEE CLEARLY

 

This story is not about two blind men guiding each other. It’s about two priests who are both my housemates at Cardinal Sin Welcome Home (a home for retired and sick priests of the Archdiocese of Manila). They are both hard of hearing, almost deaf. Yet, they sit together side by side during meals. We often see them whispering to each other and then bursting into laughter. I don’t know how they can understand each other, but they always seem to have a good time conversing.

       Can “a blind person guide a blind person”? The Gospel is subtle against hypocrisy. Many people blinded by wrong values and moral misconceptions tend to counsel others whom they think have gone astray.

       I remember before I took my sabbatical, I was feeling stressed, depressed and anxious because of my various roles of service: as parish priest to one of the most thickly populated and poorest districts in Manila; as director of a school with more than two thousand students; keeping a death-defying work and apostolate regimen; ministering to the Charismatics; taking charge of the Student Affairs Commision of the schools in the archdiocese and various social action programs for the poor. It came to a point when I just wanted to stop and rest to nourish my body, mind and soul in solitude. I knew that even if I continued to deliver homilies with fire and brimstone, I felt empty deep inside me. I was a blind man guiding other blind men.

       In the course of my sabbatical, I once cried while praying before the Blessed Sacrament, “Lord, I missed You!” I realized that I became too busy doing the work of God but I forgot to recognize the God of the work. Thus, the need to fill my heart again with His love and quench my thirst from the spring of living water that He offers. It washed the hypocrisy in me. Now, I can preach and counsel effectively because I went through the humbling process of seeing the speck in my own eyes. Only then was I able to rightfully help others remove the specks in their eyes. Fr. Erick Y. Santos, OFS

 

REFLECTION QUESTION: What have you done to correct your own shortcomings, which in turn enabled you to correct others?

 

Lord, grant me the humility to admit my wrongdoings and the enthusiasm to guide others in a loving way. Amen.