16 October 2019
Memorial of St. Hedwig, Religious, and St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Religious
As Christians, we see the world around us descending into chaos and various forms of atheism. We see throngs of people making the same mistakes over and over again. They are without guidance from God above, without his grace, without his sacraments, without his Church, without his light and his peace and his Spirit. That picture is pretty bleak, and may sound judgmental to some, therefore we must pay attention to Matthew 7:1 “Judge not lest ye be judged.” As St. Paul puts it “you are without excuse, every one of you who passes judgment” (Rom 2:1). It is not up to us to judge someone’s life as good or bad, happy or sad, successful or vain, just or unjust, righteous or unrighteous, and so on. Those are matters upon which only God may pass judgment.
Our task is to love our God and to love our neighbor, not to judge them. Their actions, however, are another affair. We will need to make judgments about our neighbor’s actions, whether they are right or wrong, good or evil, helpful or unhelpful, worthy of imitation or avoidance, but we have to be careful not to extend our judgement to their person as a whole. We can say about this or that person that they were created in God’s image and likeness, and that God’s only Son came to this Earth and shed his blood so that they might be saved. We can also assess elements of their character, such as gifts and talents, strengths and weaknesses, virtues and vices, quirks, traits, behavioral patterns and so on, but in doing so we must leave the ultimate judgment of every person true worth in God’s hands.