Fr Paul reads from the Gospel of Luke (6: 39-42) in which Jesus says, ‘the disciple is not superior to their teacher – a fully trained disciple will always be like their teacher’.

Today, Fr Paul says, Luke is drawing the Sermon on the Plain to a conclusion and he gives us two warnings from Jesus.  In this Gospel we hear the first.

The first warning says do not compare ourselves with others. Fr Paul says, it can be so easy to excuse ourselves when we compare ourselves to others, focusing on their faults and not on our own.  The only acceptable comparison for a disciple is with the master.  The master is the role model on which we shape ourselves.

For our reflection Fr Paul asks, ‘Who do I compare myself to – is it to others? Or is it to the master?’