Jesus was born into humble circumstances
Jesus was born in a stable. The Son of God experienced life as a refugee child in Egypt. As trade, Jesus learned carpentry from His foster-father Joseph. The life of Jesus unfolded as He faithfully performed the duties of youth at home. The Plan of God offered Jesus opportunity to carry out human tasks, as He engaged the greatest task in all the world - that of Messiah, our Redeemer.
The Plan of God
The Plan of God makes provision for us all to perform manifold small tasks of learning, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, humbling of personal pride and development of individual personality within society. We are blessed with a patient God Who delights in our daily achievements and growth within our individual abilities and according to our personal talents with which the Almighty has gifted us.
When Jesus went to the desert for forty days and forty nights, He spent much time in prayer alone with the Father. Jesus was given the perfection of the fulness of the Law of the Kingdom to teach us. These words of Divine Law and wisdom are laid out in the Sermon on the Munt, and are there to set us spiritually free.
Do not judge, lest you yourself be judged
Jesus explained during the great Sermon that we are not to judge others. The Son of God teaches that we are not to notice a speck of sawdust in another's eye, when we have a full plank in our own. This carpenter's symbol illustrates how we may be alive to the faults of others, and oblivious of our own.
Jesus makes it quite clear that no-one is able to judge another. Only God knows the full facts about the other person, the painful history, the personal difficulties, the joys and tragedies and the mental and physical health problems which affect that individual.
The person blessed with fine parents does not know the painful burden another with difficulties in heredity carries. The one brought up in a comfortable house, trained in the commandments of God from early youth, knows nothing about the temptations of another brought up parentless in a violent environment.
As we do not know the whole person, so, too, we are never wholly impartial. Only the perfectly faultless has the right to look for faults in others. As Jesus pointed out, none of us is without sin. We have enough to do to rectify our own lives without seeking censoriously to rectify the lives of other people.
The message of Jesus is clear; we must concentrate on remedying our own faults - a full-time job - and leave the faults of others to God.
We are not the final court
This teaching is dependent upon common sense. Jesus is teaching us not to spend our lives searching out the faults of others, often in a spirit of schadenfreude. If we exercise uncompassionate judgement, we may cause harm to others. We are not the final court - the final court is in Heaven at God's Throne.
A judge maintains law and order
This does not include the situation where an individual wreaks havoc upon another through crime or assault. From ancient times, a judge appointed to weigh the situation weighs evidence and brings about justice. Measure of surcease may be taken in order to prevent the possibility of further instances of injustice. The dignity of the ministry of judge is to maintain law and order, as well as to prevent anarchy.
The role of priests
As priests, let us remember that we are others' support towards God; not their judge. The sacrament of confession is meant to bring healing and forgiveness, not further condemnation through insensitive handling of the souls of our brothers and sisters who grapple with the intricacies and suffering of daily life.
The penitent should see the compassion of God the Father within the priest, not condemnation of the individual undertaking the sacred clerical ministry.
The priest helps the person who has transgressed to peace of soul from guilt and inner torment, if such there is. The priest further assists the penitent to make reparation insofar as possible. This is a delicate and godly task, not to be undertaken lightly, and not to be carried out without due training and proven ability to deal with the fabric of the lives of others.
Sift the actions of others through fingers of kindness
Thus the rule of thumb in daily interaction is to sift the actions of others through fingers of kindness. Let the sand of actions or attributes which annoy or dismay us flow through our fingers back to the seashore where God will deal with them, if needed. Retain within our fingers the gold nuggets of the inner beauty which resides within another.
An unknown poet put it well,
"Judge not the workings of his brain,
And of his heart thou cannot see.
What looks to thy dim eyes a stain,
In God's pure light may only be,
A scar brought from some well-won field
Where thou wouldst only hint and yield." [1]
[1] Bible Portal. Judge not, that you be not judged. Sept 30, 2022.
Accessed 5/7/2024.
https://bibleportal.com/articles/judge-not-that-you-be-not-judged
With thanks to Youtube
No comments:
Post a Comment