Disciples’ Master Checkup

Reflections on the Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Sirach 27:4-7, 1 Corinthians 15:54-58, Luke 6:39-45

Health is more than just a buzzword. We are growing conscious of the importance of wellbeing and so undergo annual ‘master health checkups’. Today’s liturgy proposes a similar three-phased master checkup to help us determine the health of our discipleship.

1. Disciples’ Eye (Ophthalmology): 

Jesus insists that we “remove the wooden beam from our eye first” so we can “see clearly to remove the splinter in our brother’s eye”. A disciple’s eye sees the fault in others, not as an opportunity to judge or as a chance to assert one’s moral superiority. On the contrary, seeing a brother or sister participate in our common ‘human frailty’ calls for introspection. A disciple’s vision is more introspective than judgemental. A disciple’s eyes are healthy when they can reflect the merciful gaze of their master. Luke, who is himself a doctor and evangelist, records a number of these merciful gazes of Jesus in the gospel that our discipleship eyes are called to emulate. His gaze on Peter on the boat transformed him from a self-proclaimed ‘sinner’ to the ‘rock’ of the Church. Jesus’ merciful gaze on the mother of Nain in a funeral procession restored her son. Jesus’ merciful gaze on Zacchaeus on a tree, Levi at his table, the ten lepers ‘at a distance’, the sinful woman in the house of Simon, the paralytic man carried by his friends, etc., healed them from their fragilities and converted them into disciples. A disciple’s eyes are perfectly healthy when they can see a future saint in the present sinner. His vision is 20/20 when it can reflect the merciful gaze of Jesus which transforms, restores, and converts the life of his fellow brothers and sisters. A blind person cannot guide another. A disciple’s task is not so much to ‘guide’ the fellow sinner but to accompany each other in the path of solidarity towards holiness.

2. Disciples’ Heart (Cardiology): 

The biblical word for heart is lev or levav and is extremely frequent in the bible. It occurs 858 times in the Old Testament alone. Biblically, the heart is not just an organ of the human body or the seat of emotions but a place of divine-human encounter and intimacy. It is also understood as the meeting point with our neighbours. It is the seat of truth and discernment, the centre of our thoughts, priorities, and decisions. The heart of a disciple could either be oriented towards God, seeking his presence and obeying his laws. On the contrary, it could also be oriented towards rebelling against God and disobeying his precepts. Jesus adds in today’s gospel, “A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil”. A disciple’s heart is defined as a store from which one could either produce good or evil. Our heart becomes a place of discernment where we have a choice/decision to make. A disciple chooses, in his heart, good over evil, love over hatred, communion over divisions, honesty over deceit, fidelity over immorality, consoling words over gossiping, compassion over slander, etc., And based on what we bring forth from the storehouse of our heart, we will be judged either as a good tree producing good fruits or a rotten tree producing evil fruits. Our choices determine whether we become fig trees or thornbushes, grapevine or brambles.

3. Disciples’ Mouth (Oral care): 

Sirach (first reading) employs three powerful images to describe the importance of speech: the image of a sieve and husks, the image of the potter and his furnace, and the image of the tree and its fruits. Just as a sieve separates husks, the furnace tests the pot, and the fruit indicates the health of the three, the true depth of our heart is reflected in our words. Jesus adds that a disciple’s mouth speaks from the fullness of his heart. Our speech is a mirror of our true selves. Paul puts it beautifully, “ Let no evil talk come out of your mouths but only what is good for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear” (Ephesians 4:29). Do we pay attention to the purpose of our speech? Do our words build up or put down? Do our words bring grace or cause pain? As disciples called to proclaim the good news of Christ, we are called to recognise the power of our words and tone. May this disciple’s master check-up help us see like Christ, choose good over evil in our hearts and speak the transformative good news of Christ.