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”Christ the Judge”
by Laurent de La Hire, c. 1640. |
Readings for Monday of the
Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time [1]
Readings from the Jerusalem
Bible [2]
Readings and Commentary: [3]
Reading 1: Genesis 12:1-9
The LORD said to Abram:"Go forth from the land
of your kinsfolkand from your father's house
to a land that I will show you.
"I will make of you a
great nation,and I will bless you;I will make your name great,so that you will be a
blessing.I will bless those who bless
youand curse those who curse
you.All the communities of the
earthshall find blessing in
you."
Abram went as the LORD
directed him, and Lot went with him.Abram was seventy-five years
old when he left Haran.Abram took his wife, Sarai,
his brother's son Lot,all the possessions that they
had accumulated,and the persons they had
acquired in Haran,and they set out for the land
of Canaan.When they came to the land of
Canaan, Abram passed through the landas far as the sacred place at
Shechem,by the terebinth of Moreh.(The Canaanites were then in
the land.)
The LORD appeared to Abram
and said,"To your descendants I
will give this land."So Abram built an altar there
to the LORD who had appeared to him.From there he moved on to the
hill country east of Bethel,pitching his tent with Bethel
to the west and Ai to the east.He built an altar there to
the LORD and invoked the LORD by name.Then Abram journeyed on by
stages to the Negeb.-------------------------------------------Commentary on Gn 12:1-9
In this passage
from Genesis, we find the beginnings for God’s interaction with Abram. In the
previous chapter Abram’s father had come east out of modern-day Iraq (Ur of the
Chaldeans). Here God calls Abram, and commands him, with his nomadic family
unit, to go into Palestine and then to the desert-like region south, the Negeb.
Along the way Abram sets up altars for sacrifice in thanksgiving and prays to
God for direction.
God greatly blesses the one
he has called, pledging his constant support.
In return, he asks him to leave behind all that he has known. “Jewish
and Christian tradition sees the three things God requires Abram to give up as
epitomizing the demands of faith: ‘Through these three departures—from country,
kindred and father's house,’ according to Alcuin's interpretation, ‘is meant
that we have to leave behind the earthly man, the ties of our vices, and the
world under the devil's power’ (‘lnterrogationes in Genesim’, 154).” [4]
CCC: Gn 12:1-4 145; Gn 12:1 59; Gn 12:2 762, 1669; Gn 12:3 706, 2676; Gn 12:3 LXX 5959; Gn 12:4 2570
-------------------------------------------Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 33:12-13, 18-19, 20 and 22
R. (12) Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be
his own.
Blessed the nation whose God
is the LORD,the people he has chosen for
his own inheritance.From heaven the LORD looks
down;he sees all mankind.R. Blessed the people the
Lord has chosen to be his own.
See, the eyes of the LORD are
upon those who fear him,upon those who hope for his
kindness,To deliver them from deathand preserve them in spite of
famine.R. Blessed the people the
Lord has chosen to be his own.
Our soul waits for the LORD,who is our help and our
shield.May your kindness, O LORD, be
upon uswho have put our hope in you.R. Blessed the people the
Lord has chosen to be his own.
-------------------------------------------Commentary on Ps 33:12-13, 18-19, 20 and 22
Psalm 33 is a
hymn of praise. These strophes rejoice
in the active help God gives to his chosen people. God is constantly watching
over his faithful people. His
outstretched hand is visible most clearly in times of dire need. The singer petitions the Lord to continue his
kindness to those whose hope is in the Lord.
-------------------------------------------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 clearlyto remove the splinter from
your brother's eye."-------------------------------------------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.” [5] “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).” [6]
“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.” [7]
“The
greatest deed of Christian charity is forgiveness, and if I must live a life of
forgiving others, as Christ teaches, this is not on account of my goodness of
heart but out of my own humble consciousness of being continually forgiven by
God.” [8]
CCC: Mt 7:1-5 678
-------------------------------------------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.
Our
observations often cause us to identify or stereotype a person (or group) based
upon actions we observe and 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
nonfictional 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 descent –
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 “Christian” 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 do not have the authority or 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 is: ”Christ the Judge” by Laurent de La Hire, c. 1640.
[2]
S.S.
Commemoratio[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]
The
Navarre Bible: “Pentateuch,” Scepter Publishers, Princeton, NJ, © 2003, p. 86.[5]
NAB footnote on Matthew 7:1-12.[6]
Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, © 2010, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA. p.18.
[7]
The Navarre Bible, “Gospels and Acts,” Scepter Publishers, Princeton, NJ, ©
2002, p. 95.
[8]
Fire of Mercy Heart of the Word Volume I, Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis, Ignatius
Press, San Francisco, CA, © 1996 p. 292.
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