PLANTED IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD THEY WILL FLOURISH IN THE COURTS OF OUR GOD.

 VIII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Luke 6:39-45

In the first reading and in the gospel, we find several pieces of advice that should guide us in our daily lives and relationships with others. 

• the blind cannot lead blind people. However, that happens time and again in political and religious spheres. Some leaders pretend to be enlightened despite their ignorance and lack of common sense and give themselves the right to show the way. They end up falling into a ditch. They should be unmasked and denounced.
• As true disciples, we must follow in the footsteps of our teacher, Jesus Christ. We must be ready to be rejected as he was. Like him, we must carry the cross.
• We find it easy to point out others’ shortcomings and failures, ignoring and covering up our own. We must be hard on ourselves before being hard on others.
• The goodness of a tree is known by its fruits. In the same way, the goodness of a man is shown in his actions. Good behaviour comes from “the store of goodness in his (a man’s) heart; a bad man draws what is bad from the store of badness.”
• “For a man’s words flow out of what fills his heart.” The first reading, taken from Sirach, stresses the importance of the words as they reveal a person’s heart: “ The test of a man is in his conversation.” And it continues: “Do not praise a man before he has spoken,   since this is the test of men.” (Sirach 27:8).

In the second reading, taken from the first letter to the Corinthians, Paul speaks of our sharing in Jesus’ victory. With Him, we will overcome death, being able to sing a hymn of victory:

“Death is swallowed up in victory. 

Death, where is your victory? 

Death, where is your sting?”

“So let us thank God for giving us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Co 15:54-58)