Is Judging One Another a Modern Sin?
Over the last few days, there have been some rather lively discussions concerning leading “unGodly” lives and obeying the Ten Commandments of Almighty God or not.
I want to thank THINK ALOUD for posting the following comment: “No one, not you not me not even Prophets and Messengers CAN validate any one of being Godly or not. God did not delegate that job to anyone and HE reserves that for HIMSELF ONLY.......
hope you get my point. Regardless of anyone's actions or ideas, being Godly or not is not anyone's but God's call.
every one has the right to explain their faith, however no one can make the judgement on whether others are a believer in God or not. ungodly is a very serious description.”
I'm glad that ThinkAloud brought this up because it goes to the heart of the matter and can be very useful in discussing whether or not we should, indeed have the right, to speak up to the words, actions and deeds of our political leaders, our sports and entertainment figures, our family members and friends, and even those here on JU who think that they can do their own thing or “say” whatever they want without any moral accountability.
Let’s start by turning it around to the positive. Certainly no one would object to someone saying, "So and so leads a Godly life" if thought it to be true? Why? Because it is a positive judgmental call. However, when someone correctly judges someone else’s behavior negatively, the sparks fly. Why? Should they? Do we have the right to judge or not?
We don’t like it when someone admonishes the sinner because that would be “judgmental” or “intolerant”. We don’t instruct the ignorant because people have to find out for themselves. We don’t seek to counsel the doubtful (sinner) because that would be imposing our moral view. No one likes to be told that what they are doing is wrong. Yet, believe it or not, these are acts of mercy and love that come in part from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount where He taught the Beatitudes. For Catholics, these works of mercy come under the heading of loving the poor and also called “Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy”. These are charitable actions by which we come to the aid of our neighbors in their bodily and spiritual needs. The spiritual works of mercy include instructing (teaching), advising, consoling, comforting, forgiving, and patiently forbearing. Corporal works of mercy include feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, sheltering the homeless, and burying the dead. These charitable works don’t apply only to Catholics; rather they apply to all of us universally.
Here, the meaning of the word “poor” has a deeper, fuller meaning. It extends not only to material poverty but also to the many forms of cultural and “spiritual” poverty. A good example, is babies in the womb are “poor”. (When I write to my congressman and ask that he not vote for abortion, I am performing a spiritual work of mercy for the “poor” congressman and babe in the womb.) God blesses those who come to the aid of the poor and rebukes those who turn away from them. It is by what we have done for the poor that Jesus will recognize His chosen ones. St.Matt 25:31-36.
So, to answer my own question, we should charitably judge another’s words or actions (behavior). Speaking directly to being a Christian and referring to situations here on JU, our task is to speak the saving truth to them in charity and to call upon them to reform their lives.
All of us, Christians and non-Christians, most definitely are called to judge one an other’s behavior, actions, words, and deeds, BUT NEVER A PERSON’S THOUGHTS, CONSCIENCE, HEART OR SOUL AS ONLY GOD OUR CREATOR HAS THE RIGHT IN INFINITE JUSTICE TO JUDGE. So, yes, it is our rightful lawful authority to judge behavior. We do this day in and day out. This is the way we teach our children right from wrong, good from bad. This is the way the magistrates of the court operate and the basis of determining most of our laws and contracts....all are based on our words or actions. It is clearly incumbent upon us to judge.
Some of you will say, what about Jesus’ command to “not judge and you will not be judged” which is immediately followed by “Do not condemn and you will not be condemned”? Should we leave the way open for wrong-doing with impunity? No. The second phrase explains the meaning of the first one. Father Cantalamessa explained it this way. It does not so much remove judgment from our lives as it does to remove the poison from our judgment. That is, that part of our judgment which is resentment, rejection, and revenge, which often is mixed in with the objective evaluation of the deed. The word of God prohibits ruthless judgments, judgments that are merciless.
In a Jan. 2004, New Oxford Review article, Dr. R. Coomaraswamy, Professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, NY wrote in part,
“Now, if we were not to make judgments, how could we decide to be Catholic versus Protestant or some other strange religion? It is clearly incumbent upon us to judge. There is a clear distinction between judging an action, and the motives behind such actions. We can clearly see the act, but it is difficult to understand what motivated it. In other words, we can judge the act, but not the soul, for it is in the soul that motives lie---the latter, thank God, is up to God.
.....Jesus’ statement in Matthew 7:1, Judge not, that ye be not judged is pertinent: “Christ does not here prohibit the public judgments of magistrates, by which they condemn the guilty and absolve the innocent, for this is necessary in all commonwealths, but only in private judgments, and that when they are rash, envious, or distractive, for such are repugnant to charity and justice...Hear St.Augustine (Serm.De Temp., 102) ‘Concerning those things, then, which are known to God, unknown to us, we judge our neighbors at peril. Of this, the Lord has said Judge not. But concerning things which are open and public evils, we may and ought to judge and rebuke, but still with charity and love, hating not the man, but the sin, detesting not the sick man, but the disease. For unless the open adulterer, thief, habitual drunkard, traitor [and may we add homosexual] were judged and punished, then that would be fulfilled which the blessed martyr Cyprian hath said: “He who soothes a sinner with flattering words, administers fuel to his sin.””
“Reprinted with permission from NEW OXFORD REVIEW, 1069 Kains Ave. Berkeley, CA 94706, USA.
Finally, there is the matter of self-judgment----one of the most important judgment calls that we all must render.
Many passages in Sacred Scripture indicate times when we must judge. From the Douay Rheims Version and the NAB these include:
1Cor.5:11-13--------- But now I have written to you, not to keep company, if any man that is named a brother, be a fornicator, or covetous, or a server of idols, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner: with such a one , not so much as to eat. For what have I to do to judge them that are without? Do not you judge them that are within? For them that are without, God will judge. Put away the evil one from yourselves.
6:1-5--------Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to be judged before the unjust , and not before the saints? Know you not that the Saints shall judge this world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know you not that we shall judge angels? how much more things of this world? If therefore you have judgments of things pertaining to this world, set them to judge, who are the most despised in the church. I speak to your shame. Is it so that there is none among you any one wise man that is able to judge between his brethren?
2St.John 10-11-------------------If any man come to you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house nor say to him, God speed you. For he that saith unto him, God speed you, communicateth with his wicked works.
3St.John9------When Michael the archangel, disputing with the devil, contended about the body of Moses, he durst not bring about him the judgment of railing speech, but said: The Lord command thee.
Leviticus 19:15------Thou shalt not do that which is unjust, nor judge unjustly. Shew neither partiality to the weak nor deference to the mighty. But judge thy neighbor according to justice.
19:17-------Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart, but reprove him openly, lest thou incur sin through him.
St.Luke 12:57-59-----And why even of yourselves, do you not judge that which is just? And when thou goest with thy adversary to the prince, whilst thou art in the way, endeavor to be delivered from him: lest perhaps he draw thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the exacter, and the exacter cast thee into prison. I say to thee, thou shalt not go out thence, until thou pay the very last mite.