14TH MARCH 2022
Dn 9:4b-10; Ps 79:8.9.10.13; Lk 6:36-38
DO NOT JUDGE
In today’s passage, taken from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus instructs his followers to be merciful, nonjudgmental, forgiving, and generous. He condemns our careless, malicious, and rash judgments about another person’s behavior, feelings, motives, or actions. St. Augustine explains it thus: “What do you want from the Lord? Mercy? Give it, and it shall be given to you. What do you want from the Lord? Forgiveness? “Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”
Reasons why we should not judge others: No one except God is good enough to judge others because only God sees the whole truth, and only He can read the human heart; hence, only He has the right and authority to judge us.
We are often prejudiced in our judgment of others, and total fairness cannot be expected from us.
We do not see all the facts, the circumstances, or the power of the temptation which may have led a person to do something evil.
We have no right to judge others because we have the same fault as, and often to a more serious degree than, the one we are judging (remember Jesus’ funny example of a man with a wooden beam in his eye, trying to remove the dust particle from another’s eye?) St. Philip Neri commented, watching the misbehavior of a drunkard: “There goes Philip but for the grace of God.”
We should leave all judgment to God and practice mercy and forgiveness, remembering the advice of saints: “When you point one finger of accusation at another, three of your fingers point at you.” Let us pay attention to the Jewish rabbi’s advice: “He who judges others favorably will be judged favorably
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