February 26, 2018
Monday,
2nd Week of Lent
First Reading:
Dn 9:4b-10Gospel Reading: Lk 6:36-38
Jesus said to his disciples, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. “Don’t be a judge of others and you will not be judged; do not condemn and you will not be condemned; forgive and you will be forgiven; give and it will be given to you, and you will receive in your sack good measure, pressed down, full and running over. For the measure you give will be the measure you receive back.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
An elementary school pupil named Ellah Joy Pique was abducted on February 8, 2011 in Southern Cebu by abductors described by witnesses as a foreigner and a Filipina. The Cebu Provincial Police Office was quick to declare the crime solved with the arrest of Karen Esdrelon and her Norwegian friend Sven Erik Berger. Their alibi however sustained their denial and they were eventually cleared and set free. The police authorities handling the case earned the ire of the public for judging Esdrelon and Berger prematurely and declaring the case solved. Eventually the CPPO Director had to vacate his post. The legal presumption “that a person is innocent of a crime or wrong” (Section 3a, Rule 131, Rules of Court) could have been a good tool to make them work harder to get the real culprits.
Today’s Gospel reading warns us not to judge others. Although police work has nothing to do with today’s Gospel message, we can draw precious lessons from the sloppy police investigation that bungled the Ella Joy Pique case. The police nabbed the wrong suspects on the basis of physical semblance. Karen Esdrelon had a long hair and she looked like the suspect caught by close circuit cameras. We also judge others too quickly on the basis of appearances. When the Lord warned his listeners not to judge so that they won’t be judged, he said it in the context of the commandment of love. Where love is involved, one does not jump to conclusions on the basis of appearances. Do you jump to negative conclusions over apparent mistakes committed by people you love? No. Because you love the person, you will leave no stones unturned to find out the truth hoping it would exculpate him.
If we can apply the same principle to our enemies, we’d be very slow in judging them. Our problem, however, is that what we can easily do to our beloved is hard to do to our enemies. But it might help if we reflect upon how God has lavished his love upon us despite our unworthiness. Come to think of this: between us standing before God and our enemies standing before us, who is more unworthy by proportion? – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com.
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