GOSPEL POWER l JUNE 20, 2022 

Monday of 12th Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel: Mt 7:1-5 

Jesus said to his disciples, 1 “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. 2 For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. 3 Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.”

W hile moral discernment also involves judgment and is necessary for day-to-day living, the judgment Jesus means here is passing a verdict of condemnation on others. When we do this, we are acting on a very limited, mostly external knowledge, for we have no access into a person’s interiority where one’s deepest motivations reside. Since this domain is accessible only to God, the right to judge anyone belongs to God alone. We, too, will be judged whenever we judge others because we are usurping God’s prerogative. Our desire to pass a verdict on another will backfire on us, because it is an attempt to play God. The amusingly exaggerated image of a beam stuck in the eye is a caution against scrutinizing others when one does not even examine oneself. A person whose life is unexamined is bound to have a distorted vision of reality and is unqualified to correct others

Lord Jesus, align our vision with yours, so that we may see the weaknesses of others with the same compassion with which you see ours. Amen.