20190318
JUDGE
WITH COMPASSION AND MERCY
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
Violet.
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First reading
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Daniel 9:4-10 ©
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Yours is the integrity, Lord; ours the
shame
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O Lord, God great and to be feared, you
keep the covenant and have kindness for those who love you and keep your
commandments: we have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly, we
have betrayed your commandments and your ordinances and turned away from them.
We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to
our kings, our princes, our ancestors, and to all the people of the land.
Integrity, Lord, is yours; ours the look of shame we wear today, we, the people
of Judah, the citizens of Jerusalem, the whole of Israel, near and far away, in
every country to which you have dispersed us because of the treason we have
committed against you. To us, Lord, the look of shame belongs, to our kings,
our princes, our ancestors, because we have sinned against you. To the Lord our
God mercy and pardon belong, because we have betrayed him, and have not
listened to the voice of the Lord our God nor followed the laws he has given us
through his servants the prophets.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 78(79):8-9,11,13 ©
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Do not treat us
according to our sins, O Lord.
Do not hold the guilt of our fathers
against us.
Let your compassion hasten to
meet us;
we are left in the depths of
distress.
Do not treat us
according to our sins, O Lord.
O God our saviour, come to our help.
Come for the sake of the glory
of your name.
O Lord our God, forgive us our sins;
rescue us for the sake of your
name.
Do not treat us
according to our sins, O Lord.
Let the groans of the prisoners come
before you;
let your strong arm reprieve
those condemned to die.
But we, your people, the flock of your
pasture,
will give you thanks for ever
and ever.
We will tell your praise from
age to age.
Do not treat us according
to our sins, O Lord.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
The seed is the word of God, Christ the
sower;
whoever finds this seed will remain for
ever.
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
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Or:
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cf.Jn6:63,68
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Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are
life;
you have the message of eternal life.
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
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Gospel
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Luke 6:36-38 ©
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Grant pardon, and you will be pardoned
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Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Be
compassionate as your Father is compassionate. Do not judge, and you will not
be judged yourselves; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned yourselves;
grant pardon, and you will be pardoned. Give, and there will be gifts for you:
a full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured
into your lap; because the amount you measure out is the amount you will be
given back.’
18 MARCH, 2019,
Monday, 2nd Week of Lent
JUDGE WITH
COMPASSION AND MERCY
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ Dan 9:4-10; Ps 79:8-9, 11, 13; Luke 6:36-38]
Jesus said, “Do not judge, and you
will not be judged yourselves; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned
yourselves; grant pardon, and you will be pardoned.” This
saying of Jesus must not be taken out of context. It does not mean that we are
not to judge at all. Every day, we must make all sorts of judgement, even
with respect to people. Even Jesus Himself made pronouncement against the
scribes and Pharisees for their hypocrisy and inconsistencies. (cf Lk 11:33-52)
What kind of judgment
does the Lord condemn? It is a judgment that is made without compassion
and mercy. When
we judge someone simply based on the objective law without taking into
consideration the situation, the context and the entire life of the person, we
judge without compassion and mercy. By so doing, we treat people like
things without feelings and without personal struggles. We apply the laws
accordingly and as a result, we tend to be harsh in our judgment and condemnation.
The motive of judgment is also wrong because it is concerned with condemnation
and punishment. The whole purpose is to bring someone to justice, which
is seen in terms of imposing penalty.
However, Jesus warns us
about such kind of judgement. When we act in that manner, we judge
ourselves because we show ourselves to be lacking in perception and
understanding of the law, the accused and the complainant. By applying the law blindly, we might have
fulfilled the letter of the law but miss out the spirit of the law. Most
of all, we would not have acted justly when we see justice as more than
legalism, but the restoration of both the accused and the plaintiff.
Legalism in judgment becomes another act of injustice since any judgement that
does not take into consideration of every aspect of the person and the offence
would not be a proper judgment.
How, then, can we judge
with compassion and mercy? Firstly, we must be in touch with ourselves. Hence, the exhortation to judge
with mercy and compassion is followed by the parable of the blind man leading
another blind man. “Will not both fall into a pit? Why do you see
the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own
eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Friend, let me take
out the speck in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log in your own
eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will
see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.” (Lk 6:39, 41-42) Unless we are aware of our own
failings, conscious of our struggles, realistic about our limitations, we will
condemn others when they fail. Indeed, the Lord reprimanded the scribes,
“Woe also to you lawyers! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and
you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them. Woe to you lawyers! For you
have taken away the key of knowledge; you did not enter yourselves, and you
hindered those who were entering.” (Lk 6:46,52)
How can we tell others
to do something that we ourselves cannot do? St Paul had a similar
indictment on the Jews as well.
“But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast of your relation
to God and know his will and determine what is best because you are
instructed in the law, and if you are sure that you are a guide to the
blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a
teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and
truth, you, then, that teach others, will you not teach yourself? While
you preach against stealing, do you steal? You that forbid adultery, do
you commit adultery? You that abhor idols, do you rob temples? You that
boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? For, as
it is written, ‘The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of
you.'” (Rom 2:17-24) The
truth is that we ourselves are committing these offences even as we condemn
others when they fail.
Secondly, unlike God who
takes into account the context and the entire history of our life when we sin,
we do not when it comes to the sins of our fellowmen. When we sin, we all have our
reasons to justify our wrongdoings. We are quick to excuse ourselves,
blame the situation, the people around us, our parents and upbringing. We
have all the justifications for the wrongs we have done. But we do not
give the same leeway to those who commit sins and fail us. We are quick
to judge and condemn. We pass judgement on their motives of why and what
they did. Our judgment is always negative and one-sided, always thinking
the worst of the person. Most of all, we do not even know the
circumstances of the person before he committed an offence. We condemn a
rapist, a pedophile, a molester, a drug addict or even a murderer without
taking into account his tragic past. The truth is that behind the sin or
offence of a person is a history. He could once have been a victim of
violence himself, of shame and guilt. No one becomes a criminal
overnight. It has to do with being the victim of sin himself.
That is why when God
judges, He takes into account all that we have gone through, not just what we
have done but also the effects of the sins of humanity, the influence of a promiscuous and
sinful society, our wrong upbringing, our wounded parents and
guardians. We are not just sinners who commit sins but we are also
equally influenced and contaminated by the sins of society. It is easy to
condemn sex abusers and drug addicts when society has a part to play in leading
them into temptation because of money and rejection. Society is equally
responsible for the sins of the individual because we tempt them and make the
circumstances easy for them to fall into sin. This explains why Jesus is
the throne of God’s mercy because He has undergone all that we have gone
through. “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with
our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are,
yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with
boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of
need.” (Heb 4:15f)
Thirdly, when we judge,
it must not be to punish or to destroy but to heal and restore. Justice
that is reduced to a punitive understanding is nothing but revenge. God does not judge us to condemn us but to
save us. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that
everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed,
God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that
the world might be saved through him.” (Jn 3:16f) The purpose of Jesus’ coming
is not to condemn but to enlighten us so that we can walk in the truth.
This too is the reason
for examination, appraisal and assessment. It is not meant to put people down or
to punish them but rather to encourage them, to help them see their mistakes
and weaknesses so that they can learn and grow from them to become more
fulfilled and confident in themselves. Judgment must not make a person
feel demoralized but rather empowered and motivated to change and to do
more. Even during the time of St Paul, some members of the Corinthian
community were living immoral lives. St Paul instructed them, “When you are
assembled, and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you
are to hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that
his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” (1 Cor 5:4bf) Excommunication was
exercised not to condemn an errant sinner in the community but to highlight to
him the seriousness so that he might repent of his sin and return to the
community.
So today, let us learn
from the Israelites how to receive the compassion and mercy of God. When the Israelites repented of
their sins, the Lord was ever ready to forgive. However, there could be
no forgiveness unless they came to awareness of their faults and admitted them
humbly. Without excuses, the Israelites acknowledged their sins.
They said, “We have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly, we have
betrayed your commandments and your ordinances and turned away from them.
We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to
our kings, our princes, our ancestors, and to all the people of the
land.” Not only did they confess their sins but they also received the
sentence of God with humility. They said, “Integrity, Lord, is yours;
ours the look of shame we wear today, we, the people of Judah, the citizens of
Jerusalem, the whole of Israel, near and far away, in every country to which
you have dispersed us because of the treason we have committed against
you. To us, Lord, the look of shame belongs, to our kings, our princes,
our ancestors, because we have sinned against you.”
Most of all, they ended
their prayer with confidence and trust in God’s mercy and forgiveness. “To the Lord our God mercy and
pardon belong, because we have betrayed him, and have not listened to the voice
of the Lord our God nor followed the laws he has given us through his servants
the prophets.” With the psalmist, we too pray with a contrite heart and
confidence in God’s mercy so that we can render the mercy we receive from Him
to others who have sinned against us. “Do not hold the guilt of our
fathers against us. Let your compassion hasten to meet us; we are left in
the depths of distress. O God our saviour, come to our help. Come
for the sake of the glory of your name. O Lord our God, forgive us our
sins; rescue us for the sake of your name.”
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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