[00:00:05] Hello! My name is Sally Moriarty-Flask; welcome to: From His Word to Our Hearts, my weekly Bible study podcast. Together we will explore the readings to be proclaimed at the Catholic Mass on Sunday, March 2, 2025, the Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time. This Sunday, at my home parish, we will celebrate the Solemnity of the Anniversary of the Dedication of our new church. And you can find those readings in Part II of episode 35. This is Part I, where I will cover the regular Sunday readings.
[00:00:40] This week's episode is entitled: Our True Selves. And in these readings, we are invited to explore what makes us who we are and what motivates our actions in the world.
[00:00:54] As we journey through the readings this week, consider the following:
How do we ensure that the things which have the greatest influence upon us are truthful, ethical, and morally upright?
[00:01:10] Let's begin.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:01:15] Heavenly Father, we praise you and we thank you for the goodness of this world that you created as our home, and for the goodness of Scripture, which helps us live according to your will. Guide us each day to choose the right path, ensuring that we always remain your faithful disciples. We ask this through your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:01:41] Now that we've opened our hearts in prayer, let's listen to what God is telling us in the Scriptures.
Our Gospel this week is from Luke 6: 39-45.
[00:01:53] “[Jesus told his disciples a parable:] ‘Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher, but every one when he is fully taught will be like his teacher. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, “Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,” when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye. For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its fruit. For figs are not gathered from among thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good man out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil man out of his evil treasure produces evil; for out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.’”
[00:03:11] The Sermon on the Plain is divided into three parts: the first lists Blessings and Woes, which we heard two weeks ago; the second is about Love and Mercy, which we heard last week; and the third, and final, section is The Two Ways, which we will hear this week.
[00:03:31] In this concluding section, Jesus tells his followers that there are really only two ways to live… one is decent and upright, while the other is wicked.
[00:03:44] Sometimes it's difficult to boil down our choices into such stark terms, especially in a world that has developed so many gray areas. But Jesus offers us some clarity in today's Gospel. He uses a parable style of teaching to present a number of examples designed to help his listeners, including us, decide which path they will choose.
[00:04:10] So let's work our way through these examples.
[00:04:14] “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?”
[00:04:22] At face value, the answer to Jesus first question is no - a blind person cannot lead another blind person; and the answer to the second question is yes - whether they fall into an actual or a metaphorical pit as immaterial… both will end up in great difficulty. And this has become a common idiom in today's world, right? Blindness - in this context - doesn't mean a lack of sight… it means a lack of knowledge. So, when we see someone who lacks the necessary knowledge or experience trying to help someone else who is equally uninformed, we call that: the blind leading the blind.
[00:05:02] Now that idiom leads logically to Jesus's next example…
“A disciple is not above his teacher, but every one when he is fully taught will be like his teacher.”
[00:05:14] That's a cautionary tale, right? Choose our teachers - our sources of information, the people we listen to, the things that influence us - choose those teachers wisely!
[00:05:29] There used to be a common saying in computer programming… garbage in, garbage out.
[00:05:36] Basically, it means that if the coder wrote nonsense, even inadvertently, into the program, then the result the computer returned when the program compiled would then be nonsense. And we can say the same thing about our brains. If we fill our minds with unreliable sources of information, then the conclusions we draw based on that bad information will be faulty. That's how conspiracy theories get started. That's why doom scrolling became such a big thing. We absolutely should consult multiple sources, certainly, but they can't just be sources that we agree with or that validate our own predetermined conclusions - that's called confirmation bias and it's a bad thing! We have to explore all sides of a situation and consult multiple, reliable, trusted, verifiable sources that provide us with honest, unbiased truth. That's how we see all sides of a situation so that we can make our own informed decisions.
[00:06:58] Jesus goes on…
“Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”
[00:07:07] We all struggle with that, don't we? It's easier to find fault with others than it is to acknowledge our own shortcomings.
[00:07:15] “Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out that speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye?”
[00:07:25] It's so much easier to point out to other people where they're wrong - or to try correcting others - than it is to acknowledge our own faults and fix our own problems. Jesus is telling us that we have to address our own issues first before we ever begin trying to help others. And if we don't? Jesus says…
“You hypocrite,”
[00:07:51] That's not a kind or gentle term, and Jesus doesn't mean it to be. The word hypocrite means, first - the false appearance of virtue or religion, and second - acting contrary to one's stated beliefs or feelings. That's opposite of what we normally think in our society today. But either way, whether the hypocrisy is religious or secular, such behavior is destructive. And remember, Jesus often used the word HYPOCRITE to address the Jewish religious authorities. So, his words here are designed to really grab our attention. And remember, he's talking specifically to his disciples… this is a warning!
[00:08:44] And now that he has everyone's attention, he says…
“first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye.”
[00:08:58] Again, fix ourselves first, then we can help others.
[00:09:05] In his book Rediscovering Catholicism, Matthew Kelly wrote that our weaknesses are the key to becoming better people. That sounds strange, but bear with me… well, actually, bear with Matthew. He says, our good qualities are already bearing fruit, and we've probably already done as much with them as we can. But, if we acknowledge our weaknesses and work on transforming them, they can become new strengths that will shape us into better versions of ourselves.
[00:09:42] Now, that is good advice!
[00:09:45] Jesus goes on…
“For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again, does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its fruit.”
[00:10:01] Now, good and bad can be so subjective, right? If you like peaches and dislike apricots, you may think of a peach tree as good and an apricot tree as bad. Instead of good and bad, for our purposes, let's use healthy and diseased.
[00:10:21] So no healthy tree bears diseased (or rotten) fruit, and no diseased tree bears healthy fruit.
[00:10:33] Those words - healthy and diseased - take the subjectivity away and clarify the distinction that Jesus is making. Because he isn't really talking about peaches and apricots, is he? He's talking about people.
[00:10:51] He's talking about his followers. He's talking about us.
[00:10:59] And he says…
“For figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.”
[00:11:10] That takes us back to what we heard at the beginning, doesn't it? Know your sources! Choose your sources of information wisely. Know your teacher!
[00:11:22] Choose carefully the things that you allow into your heart and mind! Just as a tree is known by the type of fruit it produces, we will be known for the types of thoughts we allow to flourish in our brains, which will then affect our actions in the world.
“The good man out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil man out of his evil treasure produces evil; for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”
[00:12:07] Jesus is saying, we cannot hide what we truly are… be it good or evil. Oh, we may be able to mask our inner self for a while, but our true self - our truest identity - will always become clear eventually… in our thoughts, our words, and our actions.
[00:12:35] So what does that mean for us now, today?
[00:12:41] Just this… that the things we put our greatest effort into are the measure of what is most important to us, and what we embrace as being the most important to us is precisely what makes us who we are and what motivates our actions in the world.
[00:13:05] What does that mean? Practically speaking?
If we pursue hatred, divisiveness, dishonesty, greed, envy, cynicism, intolerance, manipulation, and vengeance, then we will become the worst version of ourselves.
[00:13:38] But if we choose instead to pursue kindness, generosity, respect, justice, honesty, integrity, compassion, and tolerance, then we will become the very best version of ourselves.
[00:14:12] God gives us free will, so the choice is definitely ours. But if we ever harbor any doubts about which of those lists will lead us to the kingdom of heaven, all we have to do is read what Jesus teaches us in the Gospel. He will never give us bad advice or lead us in the wrong direction.
[00:14:39] That takes us to our First Reading, which is from Sirach 27: 4-7.
[00:14:47] “When a sieve is shaken, the refuse remains; so a man's filth remains in his thoughts. The kiln tests the potter's vessels; so the test of just men is in tribulation. The fruit discloses the cultivation of a tree; so the expression of a thought discloses the cultivation of a man's mind. Do not praise a man before you hear him speak, for this is the test of men.”
[00:15:22] The Book of Sirach is part of the Catholic and Orthodox canon of Scripture, but not the Protestant canon. In a Protestant Bible, this book would be found in a section called the Apocrypha (which is a term for disputed books). This book dates anywhere from 195 - 175 BC and its author was a man by the name of Yeshua Ben Sira (Greek: Sirach) so, that's where the name of the book comes from.
[00:15:54] This book was included in the Septuagint (which is a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, what we would call the Old Testament) and fragments of it were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran.
[00:16:10] Sirach writes about the search for and the attainment of wisdom. This chapter is part of what commentaries call: Wisdom in Domestic Life and this particular passage is a warning about sinful people. And even on the first read through, it's quite evident why this reading was paired with this week's Gospel. So, let's take it piece by piece.
[00:16:40] “When a sieve is shaken, the refuse remains; so a man's filth remains in his thoughts.”
A sieve is used to separate things, right? Think of separating seeds from juice or sifting lumps out of dry ingredients when you're baking.
[00:17:00] Typically, what remains in a sieve is the stuff you don't want, the lumps or the seeds. So what Sirach means by this example is that a person's thoughts reflect their character and if we do not consciously seek to eliminate evil thoughts, they can - and will - accumulate in our minds, which will then affect our actions… our hearts and our actions.
[00:17:31] He goes on…
“The kiln tests the potter's vessels; so the test of just men is in tribulation.”
[00:17:42] I have a number of friends that are quite creative and make beautiful pottery, although I have no talent for that myself. But I do know that if there is too much moisture in the clay, when the piece is put in the kiln to dry, it will explode. That's what the author means when he says, THE KILN TESTS THE POTTER'S VESSELS. And just as a clay pot is tested by the high heat in a kiln, men - and women - are tested by tribulation, by difficulties, by tragedies.
[00:18:21] How we react to those tests, how we deal with adversity, speaks volumes about who we really are.
“The fruit discloses the cultivation of a tree; so the expression of a thought discloses the cultivation of a man's mind.”
[00:18:43] So how a tree is cultivated, in other words… how it's grown, what soil it's planted in, how it's watered, how it's nourished, those - all of those - factors will be reflected in the fruit it produces. Think back to what I said about good and bad, or healthy and diseased, trees and fruit. We cannot expect to harvest peaches from an apricot tree, nor can we expect to harvest healthy peaches from a diseased peach tree. In the same way, Sirach says, we are what we think! What we put into our minds will be reflected in our thoughts and therefore our actions. Going back to the computer analogy: garbage in, garbage out! Or alternately, good thoughts in, good thoughts out! Again, the choice is ours.
[00:19:45] But, Sirach says…
“Do not praise a man before you hear him speak, for this is the test of men.”
[00:19:54] In other words, do not judge by appearances alone. Judge by speech and then by action. Don't judge by what's on the outside - it's what's on the inside that counts. Now, we don't find wormy apples much anymore when we buy fruit from a supermarket. The process of growing and harvesting fruit is so rigorously controlled that very few pests of any type survive on commercially grown fruits sold in modern grocery stores. But when I was little, the gentleman that lived across the street from my house had several fruit trees, and I can remember climbing up and picking fruit that looked ripe and juicy, only to get down to the ground and realize that a worm had burrowed its way inside and left the fruit blackened and rotten. That's what Sirach is warning us about. What we see on the outside of a person is not an accurate measure of what that person really thinks.
[00:21:05] And what a person thinks will inform what they say and what they do. So, we need to be careful of what we allow to burrow into our minds and hearts, because that will impact what we think and what we say.
[00:21:25] Do we rely on the unchanging goodness of Scripture as a test for what is good and what is not good? Or do we listen to the uncertain nature of our fallen world?
[00:21:45] Our Responsorial Psalm this week is Psalm 92, and the refrain is:
“It is good to give thanks to the LORD.”
And here are the verses:
[00:21:55] “It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your merciful love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night. The righteous flourish like the palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the LORD, they flourish in the courts of our God. They still bring forth fruit in old age, they are ever full of sap and green, to show that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no up unrighteousness in him.”
[00:22:35] This Psalm is an Individual Prayer of Thanksgiving, and we hear - in the first verse - that to praise God is an altogether appropriate response to his goodness toward us.
[00:22:49] The other verses compare the goodness of nature with those who are faithful to the covenant. The words FLOURISH LIKE A PALM TREE refer to those trees that produce healthy dates, which are a reliable dietary staple in the region.
[00:23:09] The words GROW LIKE A CEDAR IN LEBANON, those are a reminder that majestic cedar trees were used to construct the temple. So, the Psalmist says, those who remain faithful to the covenant will grow and flourish like palms and cedars. Then in the third verse, the Psalmist talks about bearing fruit, being full of sap, and staying green - all indications that the trees are themselves healthy and producing healthy fruit. The Psalm ends by saying that because God is upright and righteous, so will his people be as long as they remain faithful to him and to the covenant.
To tie that back to the Gospel and our First Reading, what we cultivate in our lives will be reflected in how we live. If we live according to God's will - that we hear in the Scriptures, that we know through prayer and contemplation - then the goodness that we produce in our lives will reflect God's goodness.
[00:24:27] If, on the other hand, we cultivate wickedness and evil, which we don't do intentionally… often that's unintentional… but, if that is what we cultivate, then our lives will reflect that. To put it another way, what is most important to us, what we devote ourselves to, will define who we are and how we act in the world.
[00:24:56] That leads us to our Second Reading, which is from the First Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians 15: 54-58.
[00:25:06] “[Brothers and Sisters:] When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’ ‘O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”
[00:25:57] This would have been the 7th - and final - passage from 1 Corinthians but, as I've said time and again, we missed a passage because of the Feast of the Presentation in early February. So, we've only heard 6 of those 7 passages this year. The passage we hear today is the climax of Paul's teaching on resurrection. We have heard over the past few weeks THAT Christ was resurrected… we heard WHAT the consequences would be of DENYING Christ's Resurrection… and, finally, Paul explained WHAT nature a resurrected body would have. Remember, Corinthians is an Occasional Letter, meaning that it was written to address a specific occasion or concern, or, in the case of 1 Corinthians, a whole host of concerns. Paul received reports that members of the Corinthian community were denying the Resurrection of Christ and by extension, the resurrection of all. So, Paul has been systematically addressing each and every concern.
[00:27:18] So, let's listen again how Paul brings all this to a close…
“[Brothers and Sisters:] When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality,”
[00:27:36] Remember, Paul has been working logically through all of his arguments supporting the reality of Christ's Resurrection and therefore the reality of all resurrection… what he says here, in these verses, is the next step in his well-reasoned and rational argument from last week when he compared natural vs Spiritual/first Adam vs last Adam (meaning Christ)/dust vs heaven. And Paul is not saying IF but WHEN, right? He does not say IF the perishable puts on the imperishable, but when… WHEN THE PERISHABLE (meaning our earthly and transient existence)… WHEN THE PERISHABLE PUTS ON THE IMPERISHABLE (which is our heavenly and eternal existence), AND THE MORTAL (our deceased bodies)… THE MORTAL PUTS ON IMMORTALITY (our risen and glorified bodies).
[00:28:49] So all that together - WHEN THE PERISHABLE PUTS ON THE IMPERISHABLE AND THE MORTAL PUTS ON IMMORTALITY - all of that means that when we are resurrected we will be completely transformed, unrecognizably transformed. Paul goes on…
“then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’ ‘O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’”
[00:29:27] These are quotes from Scripture… DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP IN VICTORY is based on Isaiah 25: “he will swallow up death forever.” And O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING? Those questions are from Hosea 13.
[00:29:52] What Paul is saying is that sin and death will be utterly defeated and humanity will be resurrected as Jesus was Resurrected, not in exactly the same manner, not in a manner of our choosing, and not because of anything we have done. We cannot earn such a reward, nor do we ever really deserve it. But we will be resurrected because of God's love and because of what God has done in Christ, his Son.
[00:30:40] Paul goes on…
“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.”
Okay, we hear this message elsewhere in Paul's letters, especially Romans 4: “where there is no law there is no transgression” right? Meaning that the only way we can know that we have sinned is to know that we have gone against God's law. But we DO know God's law because he has given that knowledge to us through the Scriptures. Therefore, we are aware of our sins. And because we sin, because all of humanity has sinned from Adam on, we are subject to physical decay and death. That's a reality of our human nature.
[00:31:37] That's what Paul means when he says THE STING OF DEATH IS SIN AND THE POWER OF SIN IS IN THE LAW.
[00:31:47] He goes on…
“But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
So, because of Christ's victory over death and through Christ's Resurrection from the dead, we are then given a share in Christ's victory. We, through his victory, will have a sharing in his Resurrection.
[00:32:20] “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.”
[00:32:30] After all these logical and reasoned arguments - over the past few weeks - this statement of encouragement may seem just a bit out of place.
[00:32:45] But this is actually how Paul concludes this section of his teaching on the resurrection. He ends with an exhortation to the Corinthian community and by extension, to us as well. He says be faithful, be assured of the resurrection of the body, use the gifts freely given to you by the Holy Spirit, do God's work, and keep spreading the good news… the good news of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ - keep spreading that good news that Paul first taught, that Paul first gave to the Corinthians and that has been - then - given to us as well.
[00:33:46] And we are to do so, the Corinthians were to do so, and we in our modern lives are to do so…
“knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”
Paul means is that it is precisely our faith in Christ's Resurrection, and therefore in our own resurrection, that will sustain us in this life and lead us to our ultimate reward in the next.
[00:34:19] Which brings us back to where we started.
[00:34:23] What makes us who we are, and what types of things motivate our actions in the world?
[00:34:33] How do we view the world and the people in it? Who are our teachers? What type of influences do we allow to shape our thoughts and our feelings? What do we perceive as good or bad, healthy or unhealthy, destructive or liberating? Do we tolerate our own weaknesses or do we try to transform them into new strengths?
[00:35:10] Remember what we devote ourselves to… what we embrace within ourselves… those are the things that make us who we are and what motivate what we do in the world, what motivates our actions towards others, toward the world. And if we ever need advice, Jesus always speaks the truth to us in the Gospel.
Next week we enter into the penitential season of Lent. These are great readings to guide us, to help us think about what we need to do in this upcoming Lenten season. And we really do need this season, every single year, to help us become better versions of ourselves, a process that I'm afraid, never really ends. But Lent does help us…
Discipline our minds with PRAYER so that we don't allow any garbage thoughts to enter in and corrupt how we see the world and each other…
It helps us to discipline our hearts with ALMSGIVING so that we don't fall prey to wickedness and evil and treat other people badly or judge other people…
It helps us to set aside selfishness, negativity, and divisiveness with FASTING so that we can see the good in the world, in other people, and in ourselves.
[00:37:14] In other words, Lent helps to ensure that the thing which has the greatest influence upon us is God, who we know is truthful, ethical, and morally upright. He can't be anything else. When we do that, our truest selves will be the very best version of ourselves and the path we follow in the world will be generous and loving.
[00:37:56] If you would like to reach out to me with questions and comments, send me an email at
[email protected]
Thank you for listening and until next we meet, may God shower his blessings upon you like a soft and gentle rain and may he hold you, safe and secure, in the palm of his hand.
[00:38:18] From His Word to Our Hearts is produced by SFS Audio Solutions.
The content of the show was assembled by me, Sally Moriarty-Flask.
Our music was composed by Jimmy Flask and is used with permission of the composer. All rights reserved.
Information regarding references used in preparing the exegesis for this podcast is available upon request.
Thank you for listening.
Have a fruitful and beneficial Lenten season and God Bless.
