The portrayal that sticks with me of Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel is from the 1999 stop-motion film “The Miracle Maker.” Before I saw it, I had imagined Jesus sternly warning me, “Don’t tell other people what to do until you’ve got it right yourself!” I also imagined a person with a two-by-four somehow sticking out of their eye, which seemed rather impossible.
In the film, as Jesus tells the story with good humor to a crowd, the animation portrays two carpenters. The first pauses his work to remove an irritant from his eye. The other, carrying a thick beam over one shoulder, insists on helping his friend. He turns around, swinging the beam with him, knocking over or breaking several things, and nearly hitting his friend as he tries to “help.” Jesus and the crowd laugh as they picture the slapstick scene, with the silly arrogant carpenter who didn’t think to put down the beam before helping his friend. While this portrayal illustrates the potential destruction if I don’t recognize my own blindness, it also gives me permission not to take myself so seriously. That, in turn, helps me to be open to learning and making amends when my blind spots are revealed to me.
Finally, in this portrayal, the thing causing the person’s blindness (the beam) is a lot of work to carry around! It looks heavy and unwieldy - indeed, almost like a cross. I like that in this image it is possible to set the beam down. Maybe we don’t always know how to set it down, or we’re not even aware we’re carrying it. Until we can, though, I think it is better to just be present and trust that God will help others with their splinters just as God will help us to set down our wooden beams. With the psalmist, let us remember that God sees us even when our own vision is obstructed: “See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him, upon those who hope for his kindness.” Perhaps, having experienced God’s boundless mercy and compassion for ourselves, we can offer others greater compassion.
Song for reflection: “Open My Eyes” by Jesse Manibusan
Molly Mattingly
I grew up in north of Chicago with my parents, brother, and sister. My parents led the 5:00pm Mass music ensemble at my home parish while I was growing up, so you could also say I grew up in a church choir! Music has always been a part of my life, through school choirs, piano lessons, and music ministry. I accompanied and sang in choirs in grade school and at Carmel Catholic High School. During that time, I also swam on my YMCA swim team and worked as a lifeguard and swim instructor at a local park district.
After high school, I studied Music Education and Music Theory at Ithaca College, with an emphasis in piano and choral direction. There I was also co-director of our Catholic Community’s music ministry. I graduated from Ithaca in ’09, and like many of my classmates who graduated the year the recession peaked, was lucky enough to find a place in grad school. I got my Masters in Sacred Music from the University of Notre Dame (go Irish!), where I was involved with the Folk Choir and Notre Dame Vision retreat program. Most recently, I spent two years in Wexford, Ireland as a member and House Director of the House of Brigid, a lay community of young adults dedicated to the renewal of the Church in Ireland through catechesis and music. (Check out their website if you want to see other blog posts I’ve written and see beautiful pictures of Ireland.) And now, my music ministry vocation brought me to Creighton University and St. John’s, where I am the music director at the parish and Campus Ministry!
