NOTES for Luk 6:39-45
The speck and the log are images that reflect the essence of human sin, which keeps a person from seeing God and neighbor. Anyone who has experienced such an encounter with his own sins after paying close attention to another's imperfections knows that these are not hyperboles. Jesus calls us to watch ourselves and first remove the logs from our own eyes. Yet He does not want us to stop there, saying that this must be done in order to clear our brother's eye. The Lord is not proposing that we stop looking altogether at the problems of those close to us, focus on our own shortcomings, and turn away from a world full of sin. On the contrary, He expects that, once we have cleared our own eyes, we will be able to look at this world with His eyes, full of mercy and love, and so become His coworkers. In the same way, a few verses earlier He entrusted to His disciples the beatitudes, which make it possible to "be sons of the Most High."
