March 9, 2020
Monday, 2nd Week of Lent
First Reading: Dn 9:4b-10
Gospel 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 (that they were somewhere else at the time of the commission of the crime) however sustained their denial and they were eventually set free. The police authorities handling the case were in trouble for judging them too prematurely.
This earned for them the ire of the public. Eventually the chief of police resigned from his post.
It is the duty of the police to catch criminals. But by ignoring the legal presumption that “a person is innocent of a crime or wrong” (Section 3a, Rule 131, Rules of Court) the police authorities handling the case got involved in knee-jerk judgment. This is no floccinaucinihilipilification of the police operation. Our point is that if we must judge, the least we can do is not to be passionately involved in the issue so that we may weigh matters as objectively as possible.
In the context of Jesus’ instruction not to judge others, love is the key. Do you jump to negative conclusions over apparent mistakes of people you love? No. Love will timely bridle the bit of your judgmental instinct and inspire you to give the beloved the benefit of the doubt. Because you love the person involved, you will leave no stones unturned to find out the truth in his favor.
If we can extend the same love to our enemies, we’d also be very slow in judging them. But who is good at loving the enemies? Apparently this is the hardest Christian art to learn. Nevertheless if we reflect upon how God has lavished his love upon us despite our unworthiness, our attitude towards enemies will change. Come to think of this: between us standing before God and our enemies standing before us, who is more unworthy by proportion?
Reflecting upon how God has lavished us with his love is humbling. A person so humbled will be too reluctant to judge even his enemies. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM.