23 June 2014 - judge not

23 June 2014 - judge not

“Stop judging, that you may not be judged.
For as you judge, so will you be judged,
and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.

Jesus calls us to be merciful just as our Father is merciful (cf. Luk. 6:36).  We can't be like the servant who, in spite of being forgiven a massive debt by his master, still insists that his fellow servants pay in full on much smaller debts.  We do not stand above our fellow servants on this earth.  We stand in no position to condemn them.

Jesus calls us to never judge for the sake of our own pride.  We have been bought with a price.  We can't go and extract that price from our fellows until we feel self sufficient, no longer indebted to God our savior.  Without grace we are no different from anyone else. 

Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things (cf. Rom. 2:1).

Even with grace we still know our own weakness all too well.  We read that even the righteous man falls seven times (cf. Pro. 24:16). 

When our brothers have planks in there eyes we naturally want to help.  And there is a place for this.  But it is not something which we can do if we are like Israel in the first reading.  "[T]hey venerated other gods.  They followed the rites of the nations".  We must "remove the wooden beam" from our own eyes so that "then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother's eye."  If we really do "practice the very same things" any attempts at eye surgery are going to end disastrously. 

Passing judgment is a sign that we are beginning to attempt to live on our own strength and are not relying on the grace of Jesus.  Having begun in the Spirit we are starting to rely on our flesh (cf. Gal. 3:3).  And it is good to be aware of this because we all do it.  We all find ourselves passing judgment on others in our hearts.  We imagine that we can't silence that voice.  And in one sense we cannot.  We cannot silence that voice on our own strength.  Pride and judgment will always continue when we rely on our own strength.  But with grace we can make real change.  We can even "take every thought captive to obey Christ" (cf. 2 Cor. 10:5).

If the armies of our own strength are failing, if the king of Assyria is occupying our hearts, if we are exiled from the lands of grace that are our Christian birthright, let us turn back to God.

Have not you, O God, rejected us,
so that you go not forth, O God, with our armies?
Give us aid against the foe,
for worthless is the help of men.
Help us with your right hand, O Lord, and answer us.