You
Will be Judged as You Have Judged Others
Monday June 20, 2005 Homily by Fr. Robert Altier Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
Reading (Genesis 12:1-9) Gospel (St. Matthew 7:1-5)
The words of the Gospel today are words that are pretty difficult for
people to hear, that we are going to be judged according to the way that we
judge, that the measure we use to measure is going to be used against us. So we
need to look at our own lives and we need to ask ourselves, “How much have we
judged? What is the measure we use in measuring others?” In other words, are we
charitable? Are we generous? Not only in what it is that we give to other
people but especially in the way that we deal with them in our minds, in our
hearts, the way that we talk about other people, the way that we approach them.
Are we generous toward them in the way that we judge them, giving them the
benefit of the doubt rather than condemning them immediately? These are the
things the Lord is getting at.
He points out something that is so ingrained in human nature: that we
notice the splinter in someone else’s eye when we have a huge wooden beam in
our own. It is so easy for us to be able to see the little, tiny things that
someone else does; and we make quite an issue out of what someone else does
that may be very small, while we ourselves are being crushed under the weight
of huge things that we have problems with. That is the point the Lord is trying
to make. Who are we to condemn someone else when we ourselves are being crushed
underneath our own sins?
Remember when they brought the woman to the Lord who was actually
caught in adultery. It was not just that someone was making an accusation
against her; they caught her in the act of adultery. The Lord looked at the
people and said, Let the one among you who is without sin be the first
to cast a stone.
Well, that has not changed over the years. We love to condemn people. We love
to judge them. But Our Lord teaches us exactly how we have to deal with things.
We have to look at the beam in our own eye and then we can make judgments about
someone else in accordance with what we see in our own selves. And when what we
see in our own selves is something which is pretty huge, then we realize that
we do not have a whole lot we can say about anyone else because for many of
them the little, tiny things that we are willing and able to pick up in them
are much, much smaller than the things we ourselves have problems with. That is
the point Our Lord wants us to consider.
If we are going to measure out to someone else the expectation that
they are going to be perfect, if we are going to hold them to a standard which
is almost superhuman, then Jesus tells us that is the exact same measure that
is going to be used against us. When we stand before God, He is going to say,
“Well, here’s what you expected of others – let’s see how you did yourself.” I
think if we look at it that way, we are going to realize that we are not going
to fare very well on the Day of Judgment.
And so the Lord is asking us to open our hearts with charity to people,
that when we are tempted to judge another, the thing to do is find an excuse
for them. Maybe it is this or maybe it is that; we do not know why they do what
they do, and it is not ours to try to figure it out. What we need to do is give
them the benefit of the doubt. We need to extend the kind of mercy that we
desire from the Lord. This is not easy for us to do, but this is exactly what
Our Lord is requiring of us. He is merciful, and He is asking us in turn to be
merciful. Otherwise, He is the Just Judge, and the Just Judge is going to judge
according to the way we have judged others. That is a frightening thought. His
mercy is a wonderful thing.
So we have the opportunity even now to determine how we want to live
our lives. Do we want to live it so that our judgment is going to be merciful?
Or do we want to live now in such a way that we are setting ourselves up for a
very harsh judgment? It depends on the way that we choose to judge. It depends
on the measure that we use in extending mercy to others. Our Lord calls us to
be merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful. He calls us to get the beam out
of our own eye before we look at the splinter in others. And He tells us that
we are not to judge or else we are going to be judged according to the same
measure with which we judge others.
* This text was
transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing.