Learning to avoid old ruts

Good News ReflectionFriday of the 23rd Week in Ordinary TimeSeptember 11, 2009
Today's Readings:1 Tim 1:1-2, 12-14Ps 16:1b-2a,5,7-8,11Luke 6:39-42http://www.usccb.org/nab/091109.shtmlUSCCB Podcast of the Readings:http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/09_09_11.mp3
Learning to avoid old ruts
Think of a person you wish you could push along on their faith journey, someone who's spiritual eyesight is poor. Today's Gospel reading teaches us how to be like Christ when we try to help.
A blind person, in the analogy that Jesus makes, is anyone who cannot see things in the light of truth. Spiritual blindness can be due to sin or to ignorance, but it's always dangerous. There are many, many wrong decisions to bump into, mistakes that cause more wounds, and temptations that lead the blind person farther away from God.
Because we care, we want to help people who are spiritually blind. Who have you been trying to lead into the forgiving and healing arms of God?
However, when we use methods that are not Christ-like, we are blind guides and we trip into pitfalls, often dragging others down with us. Our path is riddled with old ruts that have been deepened by prolonged use, i.e., old behaviors and habits that we forged apart from Jesus.
We need to make a conscious effort to stay close to Jesus, asking him to point out these ruts as we forge a new, holy path with him. If we neglect to do this, we naturally slip back into old ways of reacting, thinking, assuming, and dealing with the blindnesses of others.
In our blindness, we can't see the harm of our old ruts, and that's what makes them dangerous – not only to us, but to those we're trying to help. Becoming like Christ means walking with him long enough and fervently enough to channel a new path while the old ruts get filled up from lack of use.
Here's a very common old rut that we're usually too blind to see: As disciples of Christ, we will never be superior to the teacher, yet often we think we are. We behave as if we know better than God does about how to solve our problems, how to help others change, and how quickly it all should happen. But becoming like our teacher means becoming fully trained. That's a lot of discipline! Remember that even Jesus needed to learn before he could serve. What was he doing during all those hidden years before he began his salvation ministry? Just sawing wood?
He certainly learned from the sawdust splinters! Will we? There's always something that blocks our view of the truth about the people we'd like to help. What's blinding you from seeing the image of God in them? What old rut do you blindly slip into whenever you deal with them?
When we open our eyes to see our own ruts, we're removing the wooden beams that Jesus warned about. Once we've been trained on the new path long enough to stay clear of the old ruts, we understand how to imitate Jesus in leading others to his light. That's when we know how to remove the splinters that make them close their eyes.
In the meantime, any good we do for others is miraculous. It's God shining his light through us despite us.
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