"Wooden Beams" or "Splinters"

In today’s Gospel, Luke 6: 39-42, Jesus challenges us concerning assuming the position of judging others, of noticing “the splinter” in our brothers’ or sisters’ eyes but not seeing “the wooden beam” in our own.  “You hypocrite,” Jesus says, “[r]emove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother’s [sister’s] eye.”
In the first reading, 1 Timothy 1: 1-2, 12-14, we hear of Paul, from whom the Lord Himself removed the wooden beam obstructing His vision of who Jesus is. Paul expresses gratitude to the Lord that he was set free from his blindness and considered worthy to be Christ’s ambassador, a bearer of the Good News of  salvation to us Gentiles.  He admits that before his conversion he was “a blasphemer,” “a persecutor” and an “arrogant man.”  God was merciful to him, he states, because he “acted out of ignorance” in “his disbelief.”   “Indeed,” he says, “the grace of our Lord has been abundant, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.”
What “wooden beams” do I need to take out of my eye?  From what blindness do I need healing?  Who do I persecute by my arrogance? About whose “splinter” do I gossip while being blind to the huge pieces of wood blurring my vision? Like Paul, I, too, know that many times I act out of ignorance—“Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing”—but at other times I know that I am being arrogant and a persecutor of other persons by my silence, perhaps, or by speaking behind their backs or simply not being honest with them in ways that would remove obstructions to our growth in love, in honesty, in respect and integrity.