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.
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Reflection:
What can we get by judging others? Nothing except the accumulation of
hatred in our heart which if not corrected could even cause us sickness even
death. What if we will 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 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 could
they feel the love of Jesus? – Marino J. Dasmarinas
