Fr Paul reads from the Gospel of Luke (6: 39-42) in which Jesus says, ‘How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye?’.

Fr Paul says as Luke draws his Sermon on the Plain to an end, he gives us two of Jesus’ warnings, expressed in the vivid language and with the total exaggeration which is so characteristic of Jesus’ teachings.

The first warning is against using others to measure ourselves with. It is so easy to excuse ourselves by comparing ourselves to others, focusing on others faults to divert attention from our own: ‘I may have my faults, but look at theirs’.

How can we see the splinter in the eye of someone when we have a log in our own eye. If we are so blind that we see nothing at all then we will inevitably fall into the ditch.

The only acceptable focus, the only acceptable standard of comparison for a disciple of Jesus is not a fellow disciple, but the master. The master is the role model on whom the disciple must be shaped.

Fr Paul notes that for Luke Jesus is the only model that we should look to and reflect. He invites us to keep this in mind as we live out our day today.