Trinity Sunday, First after Pentecost

Domenico Fetti. Parable of the Mote and the Beam. 1619. New York City.

Estote ergo misericordes sicut et Pater vester misericors est. Nolite judicare, et non judicabimini: nolite condemnare, et non condemnabimini. Dimitte, et dimittemini. Date, et dabitur vobis: mensuram bonam, et confertam, et coagitatam, et supereffluentem dabunt in sinum vestrum. Eadem quippe mensura, qua mensi fueritis, remetietur vobis. Dicebat autem illis et similitudinem: Numquid potest cæcus cæcum ducere? nonne ambo in foveam cadunt? Non est discipulus super magistrum: perfectus autem omnis erit, si sit sicut magister ejus. Quid autem vides festucam in oculo fratris tui, trabem autem, quæ in oculo tuo est, non consideras? aut quomodo potes dicere fratri tuo: Frater, sine ejiciam festucam de oculo tuo: ipse in oculo tuo trabem non videns? Hypocrita, ejice primum trabem de oculo tuo: et tunc perspicies ut educas festucam de oculo fratris tui.

Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not: and you shall not be judged. Condemn not: and you shall not be condemned. Forgive: and you shall be forgiven.Give: and it shall be given to you: good measure and pressed down and shaken together and running over shall they give into your bosom. For with the same measure that you shall mete withal, it shall be measured to you again. And he spoke also to them a similitude: Can the blind lead the blind? Do they not both fall into the ditch? The disciple is not above his master: but every one shall be perfect, if he be as his master. And why seest thou the mote in thy brother's eye: but the beam that is in thy own eye thou considerest not? Or how canst thou say to thy brother: Brother, let me pull the mote out of thy eye, when thou thyself seest not the beam in thy own eye? Hypocrite, cast first the beam out of thy own eye: and then shalt thou see clearly to take out the mote from thy brother's eye. — Luke vi. 36-42. DRC

Now, the first three Gospels are called synoptic, in being similarly comprehensive. A gospel reading from to-day, and the week, in the old rite, is from Luke; compare the beginning, of the third part, of the sermon on the mount from Matthew’s Gospel vii. 1-5:

Judge not, that you may not be judged. For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged: and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why seest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye; and seest not the beam that is in thy own eye? Or how sayest thou to thy brother: Let me cast the mote out of thy eye; and behold a beam is in thy own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thy own eye, and then shalt thou see to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

The Mote and the Beam would be a cute name for a public house (saloon) somewhere. Vision and perception can be disturbed after drinking. Tunnel vision is a form of myopia. Selectively criticising is also myopic, and hypocritical, as it employs discrepant standards, or as kids in the schoolyard have it--rubber and glue.

Charity and humility are called for, and this will bring mercy to you. How does God behave? How do you, or I, behave?

Fetti was employed by the cardinal, and later Duke of Mantua, Fernando Gonzaga. For him he painted thirteen illustrations of parables, for his studiola (cabinet room), for contemplation. In the one supra, both men are pointing to the other’s eye. The series proved popular, Fetti’s workshop made several copies as did others. Several of Fetti’s parable paintings are together in Dresden, along with some Fetti’s Old Testament scenes.
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last year's essay on the first Gospel reading