Reflections

This has been an unsettling year, to say the least.  Increasingly, we hear our leaders piously quoting the Bible (accurately or not) and calling for an expanded role for I.C.E., an agency whose surveillance has gone beyond foreign nationals to include U.S. citizens who oppose the administration.  Meanwhile, our government denounces the theocratic rulers of Iran and the Revolutionary Guard—the mission of which is to preserve and enforce the ideology of the regime.  The juxtaposition is difficult to ignore: we increasingly appear to mirror the very traits we condemn the loudest.   

While this external inconsistency is striking, it has made me wonder about myself.  What do I criticize in others that I fail to see in me?  Is what bothers me about someone else simply a mirror of something lurking in my shadow self?

Jesus said, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.”  It’s possible that this was not simply a call for mercy over judgment but an even greater invitation for self-examination.  We so easily see the blind spots in others, but often fail to see them in ourselves.  Jesus calls us to recognize and acknowledge our own flaws, so that the awareness of our personal shortcomings can soften our judgment of others.  Perhaps once we see ourselves clearly, we will no longer have to cast any stones at all.

Holy One, may we have the humility to see our individual and collective failings, the honesty to face what we find, and the grace to treat others with the empathy and understanding we hope to receive.

Judy B is a founding member of Peace Church.