20210621 JUDGING ACTIONS
21 June, 2021, Monday, 12th Week, Ordinary Time
First reading | Genesis 12:1-9 © |
'Leave your country, your family, and your father's house'
The Lord said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your family and your father’s house, for the land I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name so famous that it will be used as a blessing.
‘I will bless those who bless you:
I will curse those who slight you.
All the tribes of the earth
shall bless themselves by you.’
So Abram went as the Lord told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had amassed and the people they had acquired in Haran. They set off for the land of Canaan, and arrived there.
Abram passed through the land as far as Shechem’s holy place, the Oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. The Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘It is to your descendants that I will give this land.’ So Abram built there an altar for the Lord who had appeared to him. From there he moved on to the mountainous district east of Bethel, where he pitched his tent, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord. Then Abram made his way stage by stage to the Negeb.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 32(33):12-13,18-20,22 © |
Happy the people the Lord has chosen as his own.
They are happy, whose God is the Lord,
the people he has chosen as his own.
From the heavens the Lord looks forth,
he sees all the children of men.
Happy the people the Lord has chosen as his own.
The Lord looks on those who revere him,
on those who hope in his love,
to rescue their souls from death,
to keep them alive in famine.
Happy the people the Lord has chosen as his own.
Our soul is waiting for the Lord.
The Lord is our help and our shield.
May your love be upon us, O Lord,
as we place all our hope in you.
Happy the people the Lord has chosen as his own.
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 © |
Do not judge, and you will not be judged
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.’
JUDGING ACTIONS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Gn 12:1-9; Ps 33:12-13,18-20,22; Mt 7:1-5]
When Abram was called to leave his country, his family and his father’s house to a land which the Lord would show him, “Abram went as the Lord told him, and Lot went with him.” We can be sure that for him to leave everything behind and most of all his family and community to go to a land that was still uncertain, save for the promise of great blessings to come, was a very serious decision that Abram had to take. Even for us today, the decision to migrate is many times more difficult than deciding on one’s career or buying a house. Uprooting oneself from one’s culture and familiar environment to go to a foreign land where the culture, religion, language and practices are different is indeed not something to be taken lightly without having weighed all the costs and possibilities.
Furthermore, in the case of Abram, we can be sure that his loved ones and his friends would have discouraged him from such a move. It was against logic. As it was, Abram was seventy-five years. It would not have been easy for a man of his age to travel so far to an unknown destination. Abram was not really a nomad as he was already quite established, living in cities from young, at Ur in the land of the Chaldeans and then moving to Haran. At most they were on the outskirts of the cities looking after their flocks. They were comfortably settled where they were. So why would such a man at this age be taking risks and looking for more when he was already wealthy enough. Moreover, he had no children to inherit his property. It would be passed on to some other relatives. In all counts, it was simply not a wise move. Hence, when he decided to resettle his family, most likely he was criticized for being too irrational.
Logically, perhaps those who criticized his decision were right. This is because they did not hear the call as Abram did. It was the Lord who said to him, “Leave your country, your family and your father’s house, for the land I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name so famous that it will be used as a blessing. I will bless those who bless you: I will curse those who slight you. All the tribes of the earth shall bless themselves by you.” How could he explain this call or the voice that he heard? The truth is that a God-experience, a personal encounter with the Lord, whether through a vision, a voice or some mystical encounter, cannot be adequately described. At most, the visionary can give some similar illustrations that others can understand but we cannot describe the feelings and the event itself. Hence, often visionaries are misunderstood, suspected to be hallucinating, irrational and perhaps carried away by their emotions.
What is said of Abram is true for all callings in life, especially priestly and religious calling. Often, when a man or a woman decides to give up a lucrative and prestigious career to join the priestly or religious life, most people, and often their loved ones, would think that it is a foolish decision. Their advice would always be to continue working and have a family and with whatever time they have left, they can still serve the Church. This is equally true for those who are already doing well in their career or in their business. They are already very well established and things are stable. Then we realize that the person has had an encounter with the Lord. They retire early to give themselves wholehearted to the service of God and their fellowmen. Some even give up their wealth and leave just what is enough for themselves. Again, such decisions are never easy. For the world, it is foolish to give up a comfortable life for a life of voluntary service to the Church and the poor.
This is where we need to take a cue from our Lord about judging. He said, “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.” In saying this, Jesus is not saying that we cannot judge at all. We cannot live each day without making some form of judgment of situations and with regard to people’s actions and behavior. When we read the news, especially those that come from social media, we must be prudent in making judgement as to whether the information is verified, true and accurate.
In other words, judgment on the merits of an action or information or a decision is not what the Lord is forbidding. He Himself made judgment on what was right and what was wrong. Indeed, it is our duty to make judgement on values and on policies. The Church is called to condemn evil, expose the hypocrisy of the world and correct falsehood. We cannot be silent on what is right and allow evil to permeate and mislead the world. If the world is what it is today, and the secular, individualistic and self-centered lifestyles are being promoted and accepted by the world, it is because such unhealthy trends were left unchecked by the larger majority. As a result, our silence has been seen to be a tacit endorsement of what is promoted by the minority in the world.
Hence, it is not only not wrong to make judgment on the actions of a person, but we need to exercise fraternal correction. When someone does something that is not proper, we need to help the person realize the mistake that he or she has made so that the person can improve himself or herself. Fraternal correction is not punitive or destructive but constructive and meant to help the person. This kind of fraternal correction is welcomed and usually is carried out with sensitivity, gentleness and with charity.
As in the case of discernment in a calling, it is necessary for us to help a person to discern his or her call based on the external forum. The discernment process begins with an objective analysis of the situation, the person’s capacity, temperament, skills, talents, character, the challenges and the demands of the calling. The external forum however remains external. But it is the internal forum that would help a person to decide whether such a calling is indeed from God and not from himself or his own imagination and wants. This is where the difficulty lies. External forum and criteria can be met by someone but unfortunately, at best it only indicates but not prove the true motive of the person.
However, we will never know the inner motive for sure, even the person who is discerning. There are many factors involved in determining the inner motive of the person. There are genetic and social pressures conditioning or determining the response. Some are not aware that they are responding to their insecurity, their desire to be known, to be famous and given attention. Some, because of their poverty and rejection by society, want to prove themselves to be worthy of acceptance. Some had been hurt badly, abused by their guardians or sexually molested and as a consequence react negatively to their traumas, either falling into uncontrollable anger or addictions in all its forms.
This explains why the Lord cautions us against judging the motives of others because we simply do not know all the conditions leading to the action. Only God knows the person’s character, his past upbringing, his fears and his hurts. We can at best only say the action was objectively right or wrong. Subjectively the person is being emotionally and psychologically driven by genetic, social and historical factors. We have no right to judge a person’s motive as the Lord said, “Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the 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, to make matters worse, our judgment is often made from the lens of our own subjective preferences and prejudices. Hence, we must be reserved in making judgment on the intentions and motives of people. This is reserved for God alone.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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