June 26, 2017

Gospel: Mt 7:1-5
Do not judge; and you will not be judged. In the same way you judge others, you will be judged; and the measure you use for others will be used for you. Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, and not see the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Come, let me take the speck from your eye,’ as long as that plank is in your own? Hypocrite, remove the plank out of your own eye; then, you will see clearly, to remove the speck out of your brother’s eye.

REFLECTION:
To be a judge is a big responsibility. You need time for studies and training in order to be appointed as such. You also need to adhere to a certain lifestyle that facilitates impartial judgment. This tremendous call for responsibility is the reason why there are few judges. Most would never qualify, or if qualified, are not willing to embrace the responsibility.
Yet many of us want to play the appointed judge especially in the moral sphere. We are so sure of our own goodness that others pale in comparison to us. Hence we feel the sense of entitlement. But Jesus invites us not to act as judge but as companions of those who have fallen from grace. This is an invitation to empathize with fallen humanity, to be part of its agony and its process of healing and reconciliation with God. When we do not become “the other” but to be “with another” we share in the collective hopes and dreams of humanity, we become at home in this good earth that we live in.