Reflection June 20, Monday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time: Matthew 7:1-5

Gospel: Matthew 7:1-5

Jesus said to his disciples: “Stop judging, that you may not be judged. For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you. Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?  

How can you say to your brother ‘Let me remove that splinter from your eye, while the wooden beam is in your eye? You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.

+ + + + + + +

Reflection:

What can we get by judging others? Nothing except the accumulation of hatred in our hearts which if not corrected could even cause us sickness even death. What if we would not judge or if we are not quick to judge? There would be no hatred within us! As such we are free, we would look younger and sickness will not be our best friend.  

We may not know this but we are quick to judge others for the simple reason that we have a very high regard of ourselves. And this is brought about by our feeling of superiority towards others. But why do we feel superior towards others when we are all created by God as equals?  Where does this superiority feeling emanates? We have this feeling of superiority because God is not a permanent dweller in our hearts.  

There’s a story of a woman who was a regular fixture in their parish church organization. But she was not well liked because she was so judgmental, has a high regard of herself and self-righteous. Are we not sometimes also judgmental, has a high regard of ourselves and self-righteous?  

In our gospel for this Monday we hear Jesus telling us to stop judging. Why? This is for the reason that when we judge we already distance ourselves from the person that we judge. We already create a wall that may permanently separate us from that person. If this is so, how can we convert them? How can can they feel the love of Jesus? – Marino J. Dasmarinas