own? You hypocrite! First remove the log from your own eye, and then you will see clearly enough to remove the speck from your neighbor’s eye. No healthy tree
bears bad fruit, no poor tree bears good fruit. And each tree is known by the fruit it bears: you don’t gather figs from thorns, or grapes from brambles. Similarly,
the good person draws good things from the good stored in his heart, and an evil person draws evil things from the evil stored in his heart. For the mouth speaks
from the fullness of the heart.

Reflection:

Once a disciple came to Socrates ready to gossip about
someone. Socrates stopped him and gave him a “triple filter test” about
what he was going to say. “Are you sure that what you are going to tell me
is true?” The disciple wasn’t sure. ”Is it good?” No, it wasn’t. “Is it useful?” He
wasn’t sure. Socrates said: “If what you want to tell me isn’t true, good or even
useful, why should I hear it?” When we are tempted to speak
ill of the other, it is good to apply this filter to our thought: “Is what I
am going to speak really true, good, and useful?” If any one of the three
conditions fails, we better keep our mouth shut, or still better, say a silent
prayer for the other.

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