DAILY GRACE
June 22, 2020, Monday of the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time
Scripture: Matthew 7:1-5
‘Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgement you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, “Let me take the speck out of your eye”, while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Meditation
““Do not judge, so that you may not be judged.”
If a cartoonist illustrated the scene of a person with a beam in one eye removing a splinter from someone else’s eye, we would doubtless find it humorous. Jesus’ story presents an effective image about the nonsensical nature of negative judgment.
Our human minds ordinarily work by making judgments. We are aware of personal experiences, and we understand and learn from them in order to make a judgment or decision. This ordinary activity of our minds is not what Jesus means when he commands us to “stop judging.” Instead, the judgment we are to avoid consists of the critical, harsh, disparaging sentences that we pass on other people. Since we cannot read others’ minds and look into their hearts, we do not have enough information to make a sound judgment. But beyond this, the judgment we apply to others will also be applied to us. One day we will all be judged by God, and the ways we have judged others will be taken into account and in some sense returned unto us. How exactly that will be we cannot say now, but Jesus tells us it will. Still, God is good and God is just. Against the backdrop of our own injustice (I.e. skewed and inaccurate judgments), God will give us an equitable, honest, loving hearing on the way that a good Father wishes the best his children.
Prayer
Lord, you know how we often judge others harshly, without full awareness, and therefore unjustly. We also at times have been judged unfairly and wonder if we will someday receive the justice that was denied us. We remember your words in the Book of Isaiah, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways” (Isa. 55:8). This both comforts us and challenges us. Help us to be careful with our judgments, Lord, lest we misjudge others as we ourselves have been misjudged.
Contemplation
“Let us no longer judge one another, but rather resolve never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother (or a sister)” (Rom. 14:13).