Judging Others

Today's Reflections 

 
                                                             

 

Judging Others 

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Lk 6:36-38

[Jesus said to his disciples,] ³⁶“Be merciful, just as [also] your Father is merciful.

³⁷“Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. ³⁸Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”

STOP JUDGING. Judging here does not imply having opinion or judgment about any person at all. In the style of “parallelism” common in the Hebrew language, judging has the sense of condemning. Jesus warns us not to rush into condemning others because we are not beyond reproach or guilt. While we see the splinter in another’s eye, we may not notice that there is a wooden beam in our own (cf Mt 7:3-5). This is sublime irony indeed!

It is easy to see the wrongdoings of others, and many of us are experts on this. If we judge often, it is because the focus of our attention is on other people, not on ourselves. People who often make their examination of conscience do not judge easily. Since they believe they have many things to correct or improve in their personal lives, they have no time at all to criticize others.

Criticism is a form of judgment. The more we do this, the more we forget that our main responsibility is to change ourselves and not others. Jesus gives a warning: others, too, will judge us, and they will not be so merciful because we have been too harsh on them.

Politicians often live on criticism,

presenting themselves as saints and their opponents as devils.

At election time,

vote for those who accept their faults;

they are humble and are likely to do great things!