Jesus told his disciples a parable,
“Can a blind person guide a blind person?
Will not both fall into a pit?
We should not be in a rush to teach. In the readings this past week, James reminded us that it is essential that we take care in our usage of language, and that teachers will be held to a stricter standard of judgment. Yet we are called by Peter to always be ready to give a reason for the hope of our calling (see First Peter 3:15). Paul too acknowledged the danger of silence, saying "Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel" (see First Corinthians 9:16). Jesus himself taught that there would be times when we would be called to speak that which we first heard in silence from the rooftops (see Matthew 10:27) and that there would we will encounter trials that can serve as an "opportunity to bear witness" (see Luke 21:13).
No disciple is superior to the teacher;
but when fully trained,
every disciple will be like his teacher.
Humility calls us to be patient and to steep ourselves in the word of God, in the training of the disciple by our teacher. But it is false humility if we try to stay there, to never move on from being a beginner to becoming a more mature student. Jesus is not suggesting that we never testify or never teach, but rather that we not rush to do so. When we are mature enough that what we desire to share is no longer ourselves but Jesus we have crossed the critical threshold and it is time to get about the work of evangelism. When proclaiming Jesus is our objective we lessen the risk that our own limitations will become liabilities for those who hear us, leading them into the pits of our predilections. When the whole point of our message is Jesus himself it will help us to avoid the risk of teaching for the sake of our self-image, so that we can imagine ourselves to be wise guides when, if we look away from Jesus, we are just as blind as anyone.
Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye,
but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?
Critically, part of the process of being trained to be like our teacher is the introspection necessary to remove the wooden beam in our own eyes. We are called to assess ourselves and our own hearts as thoroughly as possible and turn to Jesus in the Sacraments for mercy and healing. We will never be so perfect as to be entirely without splinters limiting our vision. But if we at least begin with ourselves our own issues can be corrected enough that we might have something genuinely useful to offer to others. If we skip this process we will not see the faults of others clearly. Most often we will see our own unacknowledged faults in others all around us, whether they are actually present or not.
A good tree does not bear rotten fruit,
nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit.
We are meant to be good trees bearing good fruit. If our hearts are still characterized by thorns and brambles this is a sign that we are still not fully trained, and that our teaching might do more harm than good. If we are not yet bearing good fruit we might need a transplant to the living waters of the Holy Spirit. It is he himself that is meant to be the source of the fruit we bear. Fruit comes from the heart, as Jesus taught. But if our hearts are still contaminated with evil (as evidenced by our speech) we need not despair because new hearts were part of the promise of the New Covenant. It is a promise which has begun to change us, but into which we need to continue investing, more and more.
We look at ourselves or at those around us and see the limitations of corruptibility and mortality and might imagine that there is no way that we could be changed enough to be like our teacher, that sin's sting was too strong to be surmountable. But no one needs to feel as though they are doomed to bear bad fruit forever. The solution is to let grace transform us. This is the only way to become like our teacher, and becoming like him is the meant to be our goal.
but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is (see First John 3:2).
We will be called to speak, and it will be at that time that we are tested. Have we begun to trust in the Holy Spirit such that we can continue to rely on him then? Or do we fall back upon ourselves and the limits of our own so-called wisdom? We need to get this right because we have a world of the blind stumbling in darkness who desperately need the light of wisdom that comes only from Jesus himself. If we don't learn to speak well and with moral insight we may deprive others of the guidance that would have kept them from pits, pits from which it is difficult to climb out alone. If we do we will help others avail themselves of the water that has begun giving us life.
The just one shall flourish like the palm tree,
like a cedar of Lebanon shall he grow.
They that are planted in the house of the LORD
shall flourish in the courts of our God.
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