20140905 THE INADEQUACY OF HUMAN JUDGEMENT
First
reading
1
Corinthians 4:1-5 ©
People
must think of us as Christ’s servants, stewards entrusted with the mysteries of
God. What is expected of stewards is that each one should be found worthy of
his trust. Not that it makes the slightest difference to me whether you, or
indeed any human tribunal, find me worthy or not. I will not even pass
judgement on myself. True, my conscience does not reproach me at all, but that
does not prove that I am acquitted: the Lord alone is my judge. There must be
no passing of premature judgement. Leave that until the Lord comes; he will
light up all that is hidden in the dark and reveal the secret intentions of
men’s hearts. Then will be the time for each one to have whatever praise he
deserves, from God.
Psalm
Psalm
36:3-6,27-28,39-40
Gospel
Acclamation cf.Ps18:9
Alleluia,
alleluia!
Your
words gladden the heart, O Lord,
they
give light to the eyes.
Alleluia!
Or Jn8:12
Alleluia,
alleluia!
I
am the light of the world, says the Lord;
anyone
who follows me will have the light of life.
Alleluia!
Gospel Luke 5:33-39 ©
The
Pharisees and scribes said to Jesus, ‘John’s disciples are always fasting and
saying prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees too, but yours go on eating
and drinking.’ Jesus replied, ‘Surely you cannot make the bridegroom’s
attendants fast while the bridegroom is still with them? But the time will
come, the time for the bridegroom to be taken away from them; that will be the
time when they will fast.’
He also told them this parable, ‘No one tears
a piece from a new cloak to put it on an old cloak; if he does, not only will
he have torn the new one, but the piece taken from the new will not match the
old.
‘And nobody puts new wine into old skins; if
he does, the new wine will burst the skins and then run out, and the skins will
be lost. No; new wine must be put into fresh skins. And nobody who has been
drinking old wine wants new. “The old is good” he says.’
THE
INADEQUACY OF HUMAN JUDGEMENT
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: 1 COR 4:1-5; LK 5:33-39
http://www.universalis.com/20140905/mass.htm
In today’s reading, St Paul
warns the Corinthians not to rely too much on their human judgment.
Why? Because God’s judgement is very different from our judgement
of others and of ourselves. And even if our judgement is made in good
faith, that is, when our conscience does not reproach us, it does not mean that
we are right in our judgement. This is what St Paul meant when he said,
“I will not even pass judgement on myself. True, my conscience does not
reproach me at all, but that does not prove that I am acquitted: the Lord alone
is my judge.“ Why is it that we cannot truly pass judgment on ourselves or of
others, no matter how objective we try to be? The fact is that our thoughts,
desires and judgements are all greatly influenced by our past history,
relationships and experiences. They have sunk into our sub-conscious
and coloured the way we look at ourselves, other people and events, so much so
that we often see only what we want to see, and see things not as they are but
as we are.
This was what happened to
the scribes and Pharisees. They saw that Jesus was not fasting and judged
Him to be wrong, because for them, a person could attain justification in the
sight of God only by fulfilling the law and doing ‘good works’, which includes
fasting. But if conformity to the law is not accompanied by motives of love
and obedience towards God, it will result in legalism. A purely
outward observance of the law is no observance at all. This, they failed
to see. Consequently, their criticism of Jesus was based on the old
attitude in which they had been conditioned, which was legalistic,
self-righteous and judgmental too.
Jesus’ retort was that
those who were accustomed to the old perspective would not accept His new
paradigm of looking at the observance of the laws of Moses. And His new
outlook is disclosed in His teaching, that interior disposition is the decisive
factor in moral action, and this entails good intention, love of God and love
of neighbour. Hence, according to Jesus, fasting and formal prayer should
be done with sincere and godly motives, not merely for the sake of ostentation;
otherwise these will gain no merit in God’s sight. In other words, we
must be authentic in our actions. Indeed, many of us fast, but for
the wrong reasons, e.g. for vanity or health reasons, or to let others know how
disciplined we are, etc. We must fast only for the love of God and for
others. Hence, we do not fast when the bridegroom is with us.
What can we learn from
today’s scripture readings? Firstly, we must be careful in passing judgement on other
people’s intentions; only God is entitled to judge each person’s intentions.
Just from external observation alone, one cannot conclude what is in the heart
of the person. Of course, this does not mean that we cannot judge
external actions. If we do, we need to bear in mind that the basis of our
judgement is derived from what is right and wrong from the perspective of the
law. But with regard to the interior motive of the person, only God can
judge. At most such external facts are indicators of the person’s
disposition. As such, St Paul advises us that “There must be no passing
of premature judgement. Leave that until the Lord comes: he will light up
all that is hidden in the dark and reveal the secret intentions of men’s
hearts.”
Secondly, we must admit
that we are indeed prejudiced by our past, and this cannot be helped. Thus,
our judgement of others is often lob-sided. Only by realizing this, can
we pay more attention to the views of others, or try to find view-points
different from our own. So instead of imposing our views on others,
we need to be receptive of other views as well, especially by listening to the
person himself. Before we conclude and make sweeping judgements that
destroy others, we must be charitable and give the others the benefit of the
doubt and to try to understand where that they are coming from. Most
people have their reasons for doing what they do. We might not agree with
the method, but it is another thing to cast aspersions on their motives.
Thirdly, we need to face
up to our secret intentions. Unconsciously, we may be seeking honour
from others, just like the early Church leaders, while seemingly working for
God. Awareness of our interior intentions is an important element of our
spiritual discernment in our daily life. This is why the regular examen
of our consciousness is important, especially with respect to the fruits of the
Spirit. This will help us purify the motives in our actions.
Truly, if there is
only one reason why we should not judge at all, it is simply because our
judgement is a world of difference from God’s, not only with respect to our
inability to see the intention, but in terms of compassion. God
understands each one of us more than we understand ourselves. He knows
how much we struggle to be faithful to Him, and how we must abhor our lack of
integrity in our lives. Certainly we know, as Jesus reminds us, that ‘No
one tears a piece from a new cloak to put it on an old cloak; if he does, not
only will he have torn the new one, but the piece taken from the new will not
match the old. And nobody puts new wine into old skins; if he does, the new
wine will burst the skins and then run out, and the skins will be lost.”
Yes, we know all these, but yet, because of human weakness we succumb to the
old Adam in us.
Thus it is important to
remember and to take refuge in the Lord, for the Lord is more compassionate to
us than we on ourselves. That is what the psalmist says, “The salvation
of the just comes from the Lord.” Indeed, holiness and salvation is not
the work of man alone but the work of God. Without the grace of God, we
cannot live an integral and holistic life. Yes, the psalmist declares,
“he is their refuge in time of distress. And the Lord helps them and delivers
them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge
in him.” So let us “Trust in the Lord and do good, that you may dwell in
the land and be fed in security. Take delight in the Lord.”
Most of all, we need to pray
for a greater openness to the truth, to be able to see life through the
eyes of Jesus. We pray for the courage to abandon our preconceived ideas
and pre-judgements, so that we can see life through the perspective of
Jesus. We must not say with the Pharisees, “the old wine is
better.” Clinging to one’s past can hardly sustain one’s life in
Jesus. An inner transformation is required of the heart if we are to
prepare ourselves anew to receive God. We must make ourselves as new
wineskins for God to pour His new wine – a wine that can bring vitality and
freshness.
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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