Sunday, June 19, 2016

12th Week, Ordinary Time, Monday, 20-06-16

2 Kings 17:5-8, 13-15, 18 / Matthew 7:1-5

It was said that during the plague of AD 590, Pope Gregory I ordered unceasing prayer for divine intercession. Part of his command was that anyone sneezing be blessed immediately ("God bless you"), since sneezing was often the first sign that someone was falling ill with the plague." By AD 750, it became customary to say "God bless you" as a response to one sneezing.
(A typical polite response after being told "God bless you" in response to sneezing is to thank the person who has said it.)

There are many reasons why we sneeze and one reason could be that there is something irritating our nose and the natural reaction would be to sneeze in order to expel it.

As we listened to the 1st reading, we get this impression that the Israelites were irritating God time and again with their unfaithfulness and idolatry and behaved worse than their ancestors.

So when Assyria laid siege on Samaria for three years, it was already a serious warning and a long enough time for repentance. Yet the Israelites were stiff-necked and stubborn and refused to turn back to the Lord.

So in the end, the Lord had to "sneeze" them out. He allowed Assyria to capture Samaria and deported the Israelites  to Assyria. Only the tribe of Judah remained in the south.

Using again the analogy of sneezing, none of us can say we have never sneezed before. Similarly none of us can say that we have not judged others before.

More than telling us not to judge, Jesus is also telling to look at ourselves in the eye and to judge ourselves first and to remove that plank in our eyes instead of telling others about the splinter in their eyes.

When we remove that plank in our eyes and sneeze out what is irritating our nose, then God can bless us.