Today's Gospel reading is about blindness but not physical blindness. There are two examples. "Can a blind person show the way to another blind person? Will they not both fall into the ditch?" Similarly, a student, while still learning, is not equal to his teacher. But, once he has finished learning, they are on the same level. But, if the teacher is blind, the student will also be blind. In many ways, the Pharisees were blind teachers who made their students as blind as themselves.

We need to make sure that we learn from teachers who can really see. In the second part, Jesus speaks of another kind of blindness, one with which most of us are afflicted. We can so easily see the tiny speck in another person's eye while being totally unaware of a large piece of wood in our own. We spend so much of our time criticising relatively small things in other people's lives while being totally oblivious of much more serious defects in our own. Perhaps, subconsciously, we are aware of our shortcomings but, instead of trying to rise above them, we try to bring others down to our level. No, says Jesus, get rid of your own piece of wood first, and only then will you see clearly the real state of the other person. You may still criticise but it will be to help not to condemn.