As Christians, we are called to love unconditionally, but never for unconditional approval. We are definitely wrong if we think that Jesus commanded a universal acceptance of any lifestyle or teaching. Naturally, we cannot love people who do things we do not approve of. But Jesus is speaking against being judgmental, that is, judging motives and the inner man, which only He can know. We can judge the fruit of a man, but we can rarely judge his motives with accuracy. The Gospel is, hence, an invitation to judge others with wisdom, as “wisdom is vindicated by all her children.” Jesus does not prohibit judgment of others, even if He was judged wrongly and maliciously many times. Judging others is completely fine with Jesus, but He requires that our judgment be completely fair, and that we only judge others by a standard we would also like to be judged by. Most of our judgment in regard to others is wrong, not because we judge according to a standard, but because we are hypocritical in the application of that standard — we ignore the standard in our own life. We judge others by one standard, and ourselves by another standard — being far more generous and lenient to ourselves than others. It is said, “With the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” We need to hear and heed God’s call and be moved to a new way of life from what we are accustomed to. This call is internal. It is a call for us to leave behind an old way of life, our old selves, and move to a new way of life which God will show us. Let us stop finding faults in others. Instead, let us work on improving ourselves. As it is said, faultfinding is the “venom of the soul.” It destroys our joy, drains our happiness, and prevents us from having close friendships. Be reminded that we are angels with only one wing each. We can only fly embracing each other — with our shortcomings, pitfalls and faults in tow, and the need always to have the other in mind and heart. - Fr. Erick Y. Santos, OFS
Posted on: Tue, 17 Sep 2013 17:21:11 +0000
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