“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?”
Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? The absurdity of the image makes the point: the person who can detect a speck in someone else's eye while failing to notice a log in their own is engaging in an impossibility. The hyperbolic disproportion — speck versus log — communicates the equally absurd disproportion between the critical attention given to others' faults and the inattention given to one's own. Romans 2:1 makes the same point: you who judge others do the same things yourself. The critical faculty that is directed outward with such precision could be redirected inward with far more productive results.
Church Fathers on Matthew 7:3
The Lord having admonished us concerning hasty and unjust judgment; and because that they are most given to rash judgment, who judge concerning things uncertain; and they most readily find fault, who love rather to speak evil and to condemn than to cure and to correct; a fault that spring either from pride or jealousy - therefore He subjoins, 'Why seest thou the mote in thy brother’s eye, and seest not the beam in thy own eye?'
He speaks of such as though themselves guilty of mortal sin, do not forgive a trivial fault in their brother.
Many do this, if they see a Monk having a superfluous garment, or a plentiful meal, they break out into bitter accusation, though themselves daily seize and devour, and suffer from excess of drinking.
Read all 12 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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