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| “The Kiss of Judas” by Cornelis Engebrechtsz, c.1500. |
Readings and Commentary:[3]
Reading 1: 2 Kings 17:5-8,
13-15a, 18
Shalmaneser, king of Assyria,
occupied the whole land
and attacked Samaria, which he
besieged for three years.
In the ninth year of Hoshea, king
of Israel
the king of Assyria took Samaria,
and deported the children of Israel
to Assyria,
setting them in Halah, at the
Habor, a river of Gozan,
and the cities of the Medes.
This came about because the children
of Israel sinned against the Lord,
their God, who had brought them up
from the land of Egypt,
from under the domination of
Pharaoh, king of Egypt,
and because they venerated other
gods.
They followed the rites of the
nations
whom the Lord had cleared out of
the way of the children of Israel
and the kings of Israel whom they
set up.
And though the Lord warned Israel
and Judah
by every prophet and seer,
“Give up your evil ways and keep my
commandments and statutes,
in accordance with the entire law which
I enjoined on your fathers
and which I sent you by my servants
the prophets,”
they did not listen, but were as
stiff-necked as their fathers,
who had not believed in the Lord,
their God.
They rejected his statutes,
the covenant which he had made with
their fathers,
and the warnings which he had given
them, till,
in his great anger against Israel,
the Lord put them away out of his
sight.
Only the tribe of Judah was left.
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Commentary on 2 Kgs 17:5-8, 13-15a, 18
In these verses from the Second
Book of Kings, we see the history of faith revealed, as much of what is now
modern-day Israel falls to Assyria. The root cause of this tragedy, in the eyes
of the chronicler, is the Hebrew people’s failure to be faithful to God’s
statutes, given to them in the form of Mosaic Law. Weakened by this lack of
fidelity, they were conquered and enslaved. “Only the tribe of Judah was
left.”
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 60:3, 4-5,
12-13
R. (7b) Help us with your right hand, O
Lord, and answer us.
O God, you have rejected us and
broken our defenses;
you have been angry; rally us!
R. Help us with your right hand, O
Lord, and answer us.
You have rocked the country and split
it open;
repair the cracks in it, for it is
tottering.
You have made your people feel
hardships;
you have given us stupefying wine.
R. Help us with your right hand, O
Lord, and answer us.
Have not you, O God, rejected us,
so that you go not forth, O God,
with our armies?
Give us aid against the foe,
for worthless is the help of men.
R. Help us with your right hand, O
Lord, and answer us.
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Commentary on Ps 60:3, 4-5, 12-13
Psalm 60 is a community lament. In
these strophes we hear the psalmist complain that the armies of Israel have
failed in battle, and implore the Lord for his assistance. The consequences of
this failure are attributed to the fact that the people have fallen into
distress caused by lack of faith. The concluding strophe gives witness to their
dependence upon the Lord’s aid: “Give us aid against the foe, for worthless
is the help of men.”
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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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Commentary on Mt 7:1-5
The beginning of the seventh
chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel finds Jesus teaching his disciples about being
judgmental. They are told to first look at their own transgressions before
judging others. “This is not a prohibition against recognizing the faults of
others, which would be hardly compatible with Matthew 7:5 and 6, but
against passing judgment in a spirit of arrogance, forgetful of one's own
faults.” [4] “Jesus’ teaching on
judgment is two-sided. He condemns judging others' faults (vs. 1-2; Luke 6:37). We are
incapable of judging with fairness and accuracy since God alone knows the heart
(Proverbs 21:2; Luke 16:15). However,
Jesus commands us to exercise critical discernment (Matthew 7:6; 15-19; 1
Thessalonians 5:21). Examination is necessary to avoid profaning
what is holy (7:6) and embracing what is false (7:15).” [5]
“A person whose sight is distorted
sees things as deformed, even though in fact they are not deformed. St.
Augustine gives this advice: 'Try to acquire those virtues which you think your
brothers lack, and you will no longer see their defects, because you will not
have them yourselves' ("Enarrationes In Psalmos", 30, 2, 7).
In this connection, the saying, 'A thief thinks that everyone else is a
thief" is in line with this teaching of Jesus.” [6]
CCC: Mt 7:1-5 678
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Reflection:
We reflect today upon the
relationship between Jesus’ teaching about being judgmental provided in the
Gospel passage, and his teaching about forgiveness, emphasized earlier in Matthew 6:14-15. The
relationship between being judgmental and forgiveness is at the heart of the
cliché, “Love the sinner but hate the sin.” Jesus reminds us in very clear
terms that we do not have the authority (or the wisdom) to judge others. We do
not have God’s ability to see into the hearts of others, to see their intent,
or the factors that have led them to act in ways we might consider sinful. (See CCC 1749-1756: objective, intention,
circumstances.)
Our observations often cause us to
identify, or stereotype, a person (or group) based upon actions we see, and that
we judge to violate our norms of behavior. For instance, in the opening scene
of the 1964 epic film Zulu, a missionary and his daughter are in a Zulu village
witnessing a mass marriage between around fifty warriors and their prospective
brides. From the perspective of the missionary’s daughter these people are
barbarian, sinful because of several cultural factors. Yet in the eyes of the
people themselves, they are being quite moral.
This theatrical example is brought
into sharper relief when applied to individuals or groups we might encounter.
In a more recent and non-fictional example, a man was reported to have
attempted a robbery at a convenience store in suburban Detroit, Michigan. The
owner of the store (of Arabic decent, highlighting yet another stereotype)
refused to give the man the money from his cash register, whereupon the
would-be robber dropped to his knees sobbing saying he was sorry but he had
lost his job and had only resorted to stealing to feed his family. The shop
owner had pity on the man, and gave him a loaf of bread, twenty dollars, and
allowed him to leave. We could judge the man who tried to rob the store as a
thief who deserved to be incarcerated. We could judge the shop owner as having
done the “morally good” thing, and in both cases we may have been wrong.
In this example we see clearly the
link between the Lord’s prohibition against being judgmental and his exhortation
about forgiveness. While we have neither the authority nor the wisdom to judge
others, we do have the ability and the responsibility to forgive those who may
have harmed us. The logic of one supports the other. Since we cannot know the
heart of the person who causes us injury, we may only forgive them.
Today, Jesus tells us to avoid
being judgmental of others. We who have sinned do not have the right to judge
the sins of others; that is for the one who is without sin. May we take his
words to heart, and in place of our rush to judgment, may we rush to forgive.
Pax
[1]
The picture used is “The Kiss of Judas” by Cornelis
Engebrechtsz, c.1500.
[3]
The readings are taken from the New American Bible
with the exception of the Psalm and its response which were developed by the
International Committee for English in Liturgy (ICEL). This republication is
not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.
[4]
See NAB footnote on Mt 7:1-12.
[5]
Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, © 2010, Ignatius
Press, San Francisco, CA. p.18.
[6]
The Navarre Bible, “Gospels and Acts”, Scepter
Publishers, Princeton, NJ, © 2002, p. 95.
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