20250623 JUDGING ACTIONS
23 June 2025, Monday, 12th Week in 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 that the Lord would show him, “Abram went as the Lord told him, and Lot went with him.” We can be sure that leaving everything behind – especially his family and community — to go to an unknown land, guided only by the promise of great blessings, was a very serious decision for Abram. Even today, the decision to migrate is often more difficult than choosing a career or buying a house. Uprooting oneself from one’s culture and familiar environment to move to a foreign land — where the culture, religion, language, and practices are different — is not something to be taken lightly, especially without carefully weighing the costs and consequences.
Furthermore, in the case of Abram, we can be sure that his loved ones and his friends would have discouraged him from making such a move. It was, by all accounts illogical. 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, having lived in cities from his youth — first in Ur in the land of the Chaldeans, and then in Haran. At most, they lived on the outskirts of the cities while tending their flocks. They were comfortably settled where they were. So why would a wealthy man at this age take such a risk and seek more, especially when he had no children to inherit his wealth? His property would eventually go to other relatives. By all human reasoning, it was not a wise move. Hence, when he decided to resettle his family, he was likely criticized for being irrational.
Logically, perhaps those who criticized his decision were right — 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 Abram explain this call or the voice he heard? The truth is, a God-experience — a personal encounter with the Lord, whether through a vision, a voice or some mystical experience — cannot be adequately described. At best, the visionary can offer some illustrations that others might understand, but the actual feelings and event itself cannot be fully conveyed. Hence, visionaries are often misunderstood, suspected of hallucinating, being irrational, or carried away by their emotions.
What is said of Abram applies to all callings in life, especially priestly and religious vocations. Often, when someone gives up a lucrative and prestigious career to join the priesthood or religious life, most people — including their loved ones — consider it is a foolish decision. Their advice is usually to continue working, start a family, and serve the Church in their free time. This is equally true for those who are already doing well in their career or in their business. Even though they are well-established and stable, some choose to retire early to serve God and others fully. Some even give away their wealth, keeping only what is necessary for themselves. These decisions are never easy. From a worldly perspective, it seems foolish to give up a comfortable life for voluntary service to the Church and the poor.
This is where we need to take a cue from our Lord regarding judgement. 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.” Jesus is not saying that we should never judge at all. We must make judgments daily — about situations, people’s actions, and behaviour. When we read news, especially from social media, we must be prudent in judging whether the information is verified, true, and accurate.
In other words, judging the merits of an action, decision, or piece of information is not forbidden by the Lord. He Himself made judgments about what was right and what was wrong. Indeed, we have a duty to make judgments about values and policies. The Church is called to condemn evil, expose hypocrisy, and correct falsehood. We cannot remain silent about what is right and allow evil to spread unchecked. If the world today embraces secular, individualistic, and self-centred lifestyles, it is partly because unhealthy trends were allowed to grow unchallenged by the silent majority. Our silence has been perceived as tacit approval.
Hence, it is not only acceptable to make judgments on a person’s actions, but we need to exercise fraternal correction. When someone does something wrong, we need to help the person realize the mistake so that the person can correct his or her mistake. Fraternal correction is not meant to be punitive or destructive but constructive and charitable. This kind of fraternal correction is usually well received if carried out with sensitivity, gentleness and with charity.
In the case of discerning a vocation, it is necessary for us to help a person discern his or her call through the external forum. This involves an objective evaluation of the person’s situation, capacity, temperament, skills, talents, character, challenges and the demands of the calling. However, the external forum remains external. It is the internal forum — a deeply personal and spiritual space — that determines whether a calling is truly from God, rather than arising from one’s imagination or desires. 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.
We can never fully know someone’s inner motives — not even the person discerning. Many hidden factors influence one’s inner motivations. These include genetics, upbringing, societal pressures, personal insecurities, desires for recognition, or trauma from past abuse or rejection. Sometimes people seek a calling to compensate for deep hurts or to find a sense of purpose or worth.
This is why the Lord cautions us against judging others’ motives: we simply do not know all the factors that shaped their decisions. Only God knows each person’s heart, character, background, fears, and wounds. At best, we can only judge whether the action is objectively right or wrong. But subjectively, a person may be emotionally or psychologically driven by forces we cannot see. We have no right to judge a person’s intentions. 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, our judgments are often clouded by our own biases and prejudices. Hence, we must be reserved in judging others’ intentions and motives. This is reserved for God alone.
Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections
- Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart.
- Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord.
- It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.
Note: You may share this reflection with someone. However, please note that reflections are not archived online nor will they be available via email request.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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