Leave your country

Pope Francis was in Turin yesterday. He remembered the many saints that the city of Turin has produced... first and foremost he remembered Don Bosco. (Land of wines and land of saints.... His grandparents were from this region - region of Piedmont. “Grandson of Turin.” That’s how he called himself.) He visited Valdocco, the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians. There the Holy Father spoke without the prepared text (he gave the prepared text to the Rector Major for circulation) and talked from the heart…. about how his family was very close to the Salesians, even if he eventually became a Jesuit. And he admitted he was educated by the Salesians in the heart… and appreciates the skills, training, values and education that the Salesians continue to give to the jobless youth and those in need.

“Leave your country...”

In first reading we heard of Abram’s vocation story. “Leave your country, your kindred and your father’s house for a country which I shall show you.” A beautiful passage to remind ourselves of our own vocation stories. How do I want to respond to his call today?

“Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never the log in your own?”

There is a story about a California woman who had a pet parrot. She became extremely irritated by the hacking cough of the parrot. When this distressing symptom persisted, she took the bird to a veterinarian who checked the bird and found it to be in perfect health. Then, listening to the woman who brought the bird, the veterinarian discovered that instead of having some exotic disease, the parrot had merely learned to imitate the raspy “barking” of its cigarette-smoking owner. When the lady was informed of this, she was greatly surprised; but the insight (rather the inverse insight) that she gained was eventually helpful to get rid of her bad habit of smoking.

So often we are highly critical of others without realizing that what we dislike in them is really a reflection of our own sins and failures. We hate in others what we have discovered and dislike in ourselves. Jesus says the same thing in another way when he calls us hypocrites. He advises us to apply the standard we use to judge others to ourselves.