NOTES for Mat 7:1-12

Here we are again invited to come out of the captivity of our own egocentrism. How easy it is to revel in our own limitations, to regard our judgments about people, and about the world around us in general, as infallible. But Jesus lets us see the limits of our horizon. And although understanding another person can be very difficult, it is precisely by seeing the boundaries of our own understanding that we begin to overcome them, and therefore draw closer to understanding other people. Then we find ourselves in the place of the person we recently judged, and we begin to understand another person even better... The words about the speck and the log have been familiar to us since childhood; fortunately for us, this gospel wisdom turned out to be one of those things acknowledged even by many hardened atheists. True, there is a great temptation to poke at one's neighbor: "but you have a log sticking out," yet in substance there is nothing to object to here.

It is harder to notice that immediately after these words comes the warning about the inadmissibility of giving holy things to dogs and pearls to pigs. Let us recall, by the way, that in another place in the Gospel the Kingdom of God is compared to a priceless pearl. What unites these sayings? It appears that here Jesus is warning us about the danger of a hasty desire to become teachers. After all, even the preaching of truth can be turned into a way of self-assertion, when admiration for one's own eloquence hides from the speaker those to whom he is speaking.

But we should not amuse ourselves with illusions, even ones that look outwardly pious. Reality will inevitably break through the illusions, and it will be good if that happens without tragedy.