I wonder how many times we've joined that frightful crowd of scribes and Pharisees, so full of righteous indignation and so bent on pointing out other people's faults, sins, or failures? How many times have we forgotten how our snappy comments or insulting zingers helped take down another child of God? We are all offered stones to throw, every time we're tempted to comment behind someone's back, or share a "hilarious" but "harmless" putdown. Jesus invites us to think before we wind up and hurl that stone. We must let it slip through our fingers and fall to our feet. We must hang our heads and look at all the stones on the ground around us as we contemplate all we have to work on. Let us pray:
O God, come to our aid.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be,
world without end.