Be merciful and receive mercy.
Don't judge and you won't be judged.
Don't condemn and you won't be condemned.
Forgive and receive forgiveness.
Our Lord gives us two things to do
and two things not to do.
We are to be merciful and forgive.
We are neither to judge nor condemn.
But we do judge and we do condemn.
A man is judged guilty of murder
and condemned to prison
for ten years.
What's wrong with that?
We need judgement and condemnation
for the good of our society.
We need it in our personal lives, too.
If we make the judgement
that someone is a gossip,
then we don't confide
our greatest worries
with them.
If someone says something
hateful towards another person,
then we condemn their words.
We need that.
Judgement tells us that
there must be order in our society.
Condemnation tells us that
there must be
fitting consequences
for our actions.
Our Lord cannot mean
that we do away
with the structure of our society
and our responsibility within it.
So what does He mean?
[PAUSE]
St Luke records
these words of Jesus
in his account of the Beatitudes.
Jesus pronounces
who is blessed
and who can expect woe.
He also commands
that we are to love
even our enemies.
This means that
mercy, judgement,
condemnation and forgiveness
have to be seen
in the context of Love
and to love
means to will
intensely and actively
the good of others
regardless
of who they are.
We are to ensure
that we only make judgements
in order to see
what good the other needs to thrive
and be truly happy.
We are to ensure that
we only condemn the evils
that beset other people.
[PAUSE]
True judgement is about discerning
what is good from what is evil.
But we are fallen
and cannot always see
what is good and what is not.
Certainly,
we cannot make things good.
We cannot repair the damage
because we ourselves
are damaged.
It would be like
repairing a pothole in the road
with a sponge.
If we discern evil in others
then there is evil within us
that can and must be discerned.
If we stand stoney-hearted
and allow others to be
destroyed utterly by their sins
then we can expect the same thing.
We might not be able
to do good of ourselves
but we are able to do good
if we have God's grace,
because grace perfects nature.
We, the Church,
have been given grace
to help,
to heal,
to strengthen,
and lead people
to their perfection
in God Himself.
Mercy and Forgiveness
are manifestations of that grace.
Judgement and Condemnation
are reserved only for God
in the Last Day
Who knows the secrets of the hearts
of everyone created.
We don't take that upon ourselves.
We seek only to make people
truly whole
and truly happy.
We seek others' good
but we can only find their good
and ours
in Almighty God.
But seeking someone else's good
without God,
using our own standards
will bring sorrow upon us.
If our judgement and condemnation
prevent another's approach to God
then we cease to be truly whole
we cease to be truly happy
because we fail
to have reflected
the loving God in our lives.
There is evil to be judged,
and we can make that judgement,
but with God's love.
There is evil to be condemned
and we can make that condemnation
but with God's love.
But, if we lack
the love of God
and the love of neighbour
we all are worse off.
[PAUSE]
Love's judgement never destroys,
but what does love truly
judge and condemn?
Can we do the same?
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