The Gospel challenges me.  I am a judgmental person.  I see the beam in my own eye, but I find the splinter in someone else's eye equally if not more annoying.  Such flaws in my acquaintances are particularly aggravating if they point out faults, which I share.

In the first reading, Abram is called and given a new land.  The difficulty is the land belongs to someone else.  I am concerned with the way this situation is to be resolved.  I see the scene replayed in contemporary Palestine.  One nation with a sense of a God-given right to a place and another nation forced to give up its territory.  I am disturbed that Abram and his descendants will need to fight for this land.  I am also digressing and becoming judgmental.

Let me take this reflection in a different direction.  Abram is called to leave his home.  He is called to move to a new land under the direction of the Lord.  I see this essence of the call to the contemporary Christian.  We are called away from our "comfort zone."  We are called to a new place.  We are called by name by our Lord.  It is easier to keep doing those things to which we have become accustomed.  (This isn't a bad life.)  We are asked to set these things aside and focus on the bigger picture.  Even if we still have not removed the beam from our own eye, we can look beyond it.

Last week I walked over a very high viaduct.  My attention was on the tasks at hand.  I never noticed the height.  I passed the same way again this week.  This time looking down and feeling the wind, my comfort level dropped.  I also noticed the striking view that I had missed the week before.  I pray for the awareness and courage to hear my call.