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Illustration: The blind leading the blind by Pieter Bruegel the Elder 1568
Pope Francis’ Angelus Reflection for 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sunday, 2 March 2025
“I am still sending you these thoughts from the hospital”
Sunday Gospel: Luke 6:39-45
Jesus told a parable to his disciples: ‘Can one blind man guide another? Surely both will fall into a pit? The disciple is not superior to his teacher; the fully trained disciple will always be like his teacher. Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the plank in your own? How can you say to your brother, “Brother, let me take out the splinter that is in your eye,” when you cannot see the plank in your own? Hypocrite! Take the plank out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take out the splinter that is in your brother’s eye.
‘There is no sound tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again a rotten tree that produces sound fruit. For every tree can be known by its own fruit: people do not pick figs from thorns, nor gather grapes from brambles. A good man draws what is good from the store of goodness in his heart; a bad man draws what is bad from the store of badness. For a man’s words flow out of what fills his heart.’
Dear brothers and sisters,
In this Sunday’s Gospel (Luke 6:39-45 above), Jesus makes us think about two of the five senses:
Sight and Taste.
With regard to sight,
He asks us to train our eyes to observe the world well and to judge our neighbor with charity.
He says: “Take the plank out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take out the splinter that is in your brother’s eye” (v. 42).
Only with this look of care, not of condemnation, can fraternal correction be a virtue.
Because if it is not fraternal, it is not correction!
With regard to taste,
Jesus reminds us that “every tree can be known by its own fruit” (v. 44).
And the fruits that come from man are, for example, his words, which ripen on his lips, since “for a man’s words flow out of what fills his heart” (v. 45).
The bad fruits are violent, false, vulgar words.
The good ones are the just and honest words that give flavor to our dialogues.
And so we can ask ourselves: how do I look at others, who are my brothers and sisters?
And how do I feel when others look at me?
Do my words have a good taste, or are they filled with bitterness and vanity?
Sisters and brothers, I am still sending you these thoughts from the hospital, where as you know I have been for several days, accompanied by doctors and health professionals, whom I thank for the attention with which they are taking care of me.
I feel in my heart the “blessing” that is hidden in infirmty, because it is precisely in these moments that we learn to trust the Lord even more.
At the same time, I thank God for giving me the opportunity to share in body and spirit, the condition of so many sick and suffering people.
I thank you for the prayers that go up to the Lord from the hearts of so many faithful from many parts of the world.
I feel all your affection and closeness and, at this special time, I feel “carried” and supported by all the People of God.
Thank you all!
I also pray for you. And I pray especially for peace.
From here, war seems even more absurd.
Let us pray for the tormented Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Myanmar, Sudan and Kivu.
Let us entrust ourselves confidently to Mary, our Mother.
GoodSunday, and arrivederci
