In his sermon, Cathedral Provost Assmann affirms treating fellow human beings in brotherhood and with mercy. Starting from the gospel, he pointed out that many a verse of today’s text appears again and again in our everyday life, for example: “What the heart is full of, the mouth gushes over” or “First pull the log out of your eye; then you can see to pull the splinter out of your brother’s eye”.
Jesus calls us to look at our own lives, Assmann explains, because “we notice the mistakes of others directly, but we are often blind to our own”. Even if this attitude is part of human nature, the art for the cathedral provost is: “Can I do it, in the sense of a fraternal rebuke, not to expose my neighbor at the same time?”
More relevant than ever
With regard to current events, Assmann asked whether it is also possible for us to ensure peace in our own personal environment. In addition to the political situation in Ukraine and Europe, the cathedral provost also mentioned the return of Cologne Archbishop Cardinal Woelki.
Just pointing to others and demanding things from them without doing anything good yourself is not enough. “Let’s try it in small steps and let’s see the good in people first”. Assmann concluded his sermon with this suggestion, “to make the words of Jesus effective in our lives”.
On the eighth Sunday of the year, DOMRADIO.DE broadcast the chapter office from the Cologne Cathedral with Cathedral Provost Guido Assmann. The male voices of the Cologne Cathedral Choir sing under the direction of Anna Goeke. Ulrich Brüggemann was at the organ.
“First pull the log out of your eye; then you can look to pull the splinter out of your brother’s eye.” (Luke 6:42)
Impulse to the gospel Lk 6,39-45 by Christian Schuler
Not only is our life short, it’s the only thing we have. Actually a bleak situation. But we can have “several lives” by participating in the lives of others and letting others participate in our lives. Only then will we be able to say “we”. A hypocrite, on the other hand, is defined by the fact that he can only say “I” but never “we” wholeheartedly. He only keeps his moral high by hiding his own dark side from others (and maybe from himself). Hypocrisy ends where there is real encounter, open conversation, honest prayer and where we can question ourselves. A single person cannot look himself in the eye. He can only do it through someone else’s loving gaze. Only with his eyes and the eyes of the other does he know how to distinguish splinters from beams.
From: TeDeum – The Liturgy of the Hours in everyday life, February 2022, www.tedeum-beten.de
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