June 25, 2018 Monday
12 Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: 2 Kgs 17:5-8.13-15a.18
Gospel: Matthew 7:1-5
Jesus said to his disciples, “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, take first the plank out of your own eye, then you will see clear enough to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)
The Gospel prohibition against judging others finds logical basis in the fact that we are all imperfect. The time we spend to keep an account of the inadequacies of others is better spent improving ourselves. Between improving ourselves and monitoring the imperfections of others we know what is more godly and productive. “Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye and not see the plank in your own eye?”
“Do not judge and you will not be judged” is not about tit-for-tat but about vulnerability. Each judgment we make about others chips off a layer of our private selves. When we judge others we reveal our standards. More often than not the standards we maintain are the very standards we violate. So when we judge others the harsher judgment is on us.
On Judgment Day, we’d be embarrassed to find the persons we have condemned justified by God’s compassion. We know that God takes compassion for the lost ones. Won’t Jesus rush to the rescue of those we have judged as lost by our own standards? That will be their great vindication. The same will be our great embarrassment and condemnation. “The judge is condemned when the criminal is acquitted” (Publilius Syrus).
As we grow old we forget many important things including the name of our spouse and children. Yet we never fail to remember the misdeeds of others. This is not an anomaly of memory but the ugly product of a proud heart. “Everyone complains of his memory”, wrote Rochefoucauld”, “but no one complains of his judgment”.
By enjoining us from judging others Jesus has not relaxed every one’s duty to correct one another. Matthew 18:15-17 requires us to point out the fault of our brother before him. But this must be taken side by side with the task of perfection. We have to be perfect just as our heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48). Stronger than unsolicited advice of one correcting another is the glaring brightness of one’s holiness and perfection. –(Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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