THE AMBIGUITY OF JUDGEMENT IS RESOLVED IN GOD’S JUDGEMENT

20160620 THE AMBIGUITY OF JUDGEMENT IS RESOLVED IN GOD’S JUDGEMENT

Readings at Mass

Liturgical Colour: Green.

First reading

2 Kings 17:5-8,13-15,18 ©

The king of Assyria invaded the whole country and, coming to Samaria, laid siege to it for three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria. He settled them in Halah on the Habor, a river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

  This happened because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the grip of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshipped other gods, they followed the practices of the nations that the Lord had dispossessed for them.

  And yet through all the prophets and all the seers, the Lord had given Israel and Judah this warning, ‘Turn from your wicked ways and keep my commandments and my laws in accordance with the entire Law I laid down for your fathers and delivered to them through my servants the prophets.’ But they would not listen, they were more stubborn than their ancestors had been who had no faith in the Lord their God. They despised his laws and the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and the warnings he had given them. They pursued emptiness, and themselves became empty through copying the nations round them although the Lord had ordered them not to act as they did. For this, the Lord was enraged with Israel and thrust them away from him. There was none left but the tribe of Judah only.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 59:3-5,12-13 ©

Hear us, O Lord, and help us.

O God, you have rejected us and broken us.

  You have been angry; come back to us.

Hear us, O Lord, and help us.

You have made the earth quake, torn it open.

  Repair what is shattered for it sways.

You have inflicted hardships on your people

  and made us drink a wine that dazed us.

Hear us, O Lord, and help us.

Will you utterly reject us, O God,

  and no longer march with our armies?

Give us help against the foe:

  for the help of man is vain.

Hear us, O Lord, and help us.

Gospel Acclamation

Jn17:17

Alleluia, alleluia!

Your word is truth, O Lord:

consecrate us in the truth.

Alleluia!

Or

Heb4:12

Alleluia, alleluia!

The word of God is something alive and active:

it can judge secret emotions and thoughts.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Matthew 7:1-5 ©

Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged; because the judgements you give are the judgements you will get, and the amount you measure out is the amount you will be given. Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the plank in your own? How dare you say to your brother, “Let me take the splinter out of your eye,” when all the time there is a plank in your own? Hypocrite! Take the plank out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye.’

THE AMBIGUITY OF JUDGEMENT IS RESOLVED IN GOD’S JUDGEMENT

SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ 2 Kg 17:5-8, 13-15, 18; Mt 7:1-5 ]

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged; because the judgements you will give are the judgements that you will get, and the amount you measure out is the amount you will be given.”  These words of Jesus are good advice for all of us when it comes to the question of judgment.  However, these words must not be taken out of context of be interpreted narrowly.  God has given us an intellect and will and a conscience.  Therefore, we cannot avoid making judgements on moral issues and matters involving the affairs of daily life.   Indeed, in things of the spirit, discernment and judgement is even more important.  St John  wrote “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1 Jn 4:1)

From a personal and subjective dimension, this command and warning of Jesus must be heeded.  Indeed, it reminds us of the danger of judging the intentions of others and labelling others as sinners. The truth is that we will never know all the circumstances surrounding the person that caused him to act in that manner.  All we can observe is the external event.  Objectively, we can say that it is wrong but subjectively we are not in a position to judge the intentions of the sinner or offender.  When a sin or crime is committed, it is often the culmination of many factors, tragedies in the person’s life, upbringing, wrong company, past and unhealed hurts and fear. Some may even be under spiritual bondage.  So it is not for us to pass judgement on the state of the soul of the person.  At best we can determine whether an action is ethically right or wrong.

However, we are obliged to make judgment on the situations in the world and in our society.  This is particularly true of those who are leaders or are responsible for those under their care.  The failure to make proper judgement will lead to the destruction of those who depend on them for leadership.  This precisely was the situation in the first reading.  Prophets were sent, one after another to warn the leaders and the people of the need to put their house in order by being faithful to the Covenant and the laws so that they could remain united, strong and prosperous.  Unfortunately, the leaders were corrupt.  They did not listen to the Lord and His prophets.  They brought in pagan values and worship, corrupting the purity of the faith of Israel.  This was the assessment of the prophets of the situation at that time, “This had happened because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the grip of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.  They worshipped other gods, they followed the practices of the nations that the Lord had dispossessed for them.”

As a consequence, the country was not strong enough to withstand the onslaught of their enemies, the Assyrians.  Instead of relying on God and the exhortation of the prophets, the political and religious leaders relied on themselves and their own superficial judgement of the political and social situation.  For not heeding the words of the prophets to be faithful to the commandments of the Lord, they suffered the consequences of their sins as God allowed Assyria to conquer the Northern Kingdom of Israel.  They were exiled and foreigners were imported into the kingdom so that, with the Israelites scattered and intermarried with the foreigners, the possibility of their coming together as a nation would be weakened.  This was the strategy of the Assyrians and the military powers in those days.  It was the strategy of inculturation so that the people would no longer be homogenous.  Indeed, the Samaritans precisely were despised by the Israelites in the Southern Kingdom of Judah because they were considered a mixed race as they no longer retained the pure blood of the Israelites.

This is an important lesson for us all.  The world today is not much different from the past.  History always repeats itself.  Today many political and economic leaders are short sighted.  They seek progress, advancement in science and technology but at the expense of the development of the human person. The focus is on profits and economic growth, infrastructure and developments but the moral and spiritual growth of the person is excluded.  When the world and governments adopt a hostile secularism towards religions, at the end of the day, the country will suffer moral and spiritual decadence.  How can a country continue to progress when the people are without moral values.  Science and technology without morality can destroy not just people but the whole earth.   How can we tolerate leaders in the political and economic world when they do not have integrity, honesty, justice and compassion for the poor and the weak?  When leaders are bereft of moral values, all the gains made by technology will destroy the nation.

Indeed, the real test for Singapore is whether we will continue to have leaders who are morally upright to lead the country into the next 50 years.   The legacy left behind by our founding fathers, particularly the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew, was a government built on strong moral foundations of integrity and justice, diligence and loyalty, self-sacrifice and a community spirit.  In an age of individualism, materialism, consumerism, relativism, can we find leaders with the right moral values to guide the country?  The day when the government sinks into corruption and is self-seeking, we will suffer the same fate as those affluent countries.  It is a matter of time when moral and spiritual depravity will cause the nation to be divided because the people no longer trust their leaders.  How can leaders lead if the people no longer trust them in what they say and do?

At the same time, judgement is difficult and ambiguous in an age of relativism.  Today, as leaders we find it extremely challenging to be able to tell people about what is right or wrong.  Judgement is ambiguous.   With relativism, there are no more absolute principles that we could agree upon because it is all based on preferences and opinions.  So much so leaders are left to make decisions based on consensus.  A leader can no longer lead but is led by the people.  A leader is reduced to a coordinator, a power broker and a mediator.   Leadership today is simply about gathering consensus.  But is this leadership?  Unlike charismatic leaders in the past, we no longer have leaders with clear directions and to whom people can look to to lead them to where they do not know.

In truth, the judgement of man is always superficial and inadequate.  This is the judgement of our Lord when He said, “Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the plank in your own?  How dare you say to your brother, “Let me take the splinter out of your eye”, when all the time there is a plank in your own?  Hypocrite!  Take the plank out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye.”   Indeed, our judgement is often flawed.  They are based on our limited knowledge and influenced by our past experiences, upbringing and conditioning.  As Jeremiah remarked, “The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse – who can understand it? I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings.” (Jer 17:9f)

So what is the way out?  We must not apply our own judgement but God’s judgement.  His judgement is found in the Word of God and in His Church, His body with Him as the Head.  The psalmist puts it rightly “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight.” (Ps 51:3f)  Indeed, only God can give the ultimate judgement of our hearts and the world.  We must therefore turn to the Word of God for guidance and for judgement.  “Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.” (Heb 4:12f)

We must believe that God’s Word is the truth and not some human thinking.  St Paul wrote, “when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God’s word, which is also at work in you believers.” (1 Th 2:13)  Besides the Word of God, Christians must rely on the Church to help them discern the truth because as St Paul says, “you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth.” (1 Tim 3:15)  With the guidance from God and His Church, as Catholics we cannot say we do not know the truth because Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  In Him we find our salvation.  In Him we find all the answers to the mysteries of life.

Written by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved