4th Sunday after Trinity - 3 Jul 1955
3 July 1955, St. John’s Chapel
Luke 6:36-42: “ Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again. And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch? The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother's eye.”
The Gospel for today taken from St. Luke is a passage against hypocrisy – pretending to be what in reality we are not. We must be what we say we are. Our character and conduct must conform to what we say we believe. We must be genuine in what we say or do and not be hypocrites. This will mean a real following of Christ in everyday life. If we truly follow Christ we will have to go through sufferings of various sorts. When we try to follow Christ in earnest people may sometimes ridicule us or misunderstand our objective in life.
St. Paul points out in the Epistle that suffering is essential if we follow Christ, for Christ himself suffered in mind as well as in body because people failed to grasp the spiritual value of his teaching and continued in their ways of selfishness and vice.
The prayer of today’s Collect is that we may bear suffering manfully and really be the genuine article instead of being hypocrites.