Part of
every baptized Christian’s prophetic role is to pass judgment on what’s taking
place around us, calling good what is good and evil what is evil. Yet in Luke’s gospel, the Lord tells the
disciples –and us– “Stop judging and you will not be judged” (Luke 6:36-38). Are we
looking at a contradiction?
Fortunately,
the English language provides us with a helpful way to clear this seeming
contradiction. We have two different
verbs with the same root, but with two quite different meanings. The two verbs
are critiquing and criticizing.
We critique
performances, actions, works of art, writings; and in doing so we pass
objective judgment on things. When we
criticize, we envisage persons and in so doing we pass subjective judgment on
the goodness or wrongness of their intentions, which are often unknown to
us. We do need to critique, in order to
avoid being uncritical or naive. But in
criticizing we’re setting ourselves up as judges of people’s intentions, which
is the Lord’s prerogative: “the Father... has entrusted all
judgment to the Son”
(John 5: 22).
Part of the
prophetic role of baptized Christians is precisely critiquing developments and
actions taking place around us, while respecting the people involved. Even within the Church we all bear a
responsibility to critique positions and decisions taken. But when we cross the line that separates
critiquing from criticizing, we’re contributing to the existing polarization,
which itself needs being critiqued, yet without criticizing those who hold
different positions.
Another
phrase in Luke’s gospel that resonates strongly with me is, “For
the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”
I try to put into practice these
wise words every single day of my life and I’m intentional in using a “measure”
that doesn’t measure anything but instead welcomes, with as much compassion as
I have, the other in her or his own beauty. Not because I expect to be measured the same
way, but more because my parents (and life) taught me that the approach of
respect, forgiveness, valuing the others’ value and my genuine willingness to
let the others be, has brought me to the opportunity to meet wonderful people who
have enriched my life in a unique way.
I’m far from
being where I would like to be in terms of true forgiveness and judging or—to be
honest, not judging. As I examine and
reflect on my life on a daily basis, I try to adjust my thoughts and behavior to
get closer to my ideals. Something that’s
helped me to reach my goals has been to approach people who at first glance may
be out of my comfort zone. I then try to
establish a conversation so that I may discover something I hadn’t seen before.
This process is not easy at all for me
and I can’t always follow through, but when I do it, 99.9% of the times does
work wonderfully!
Another
approach I’ve also tried is to read (blogs, magazine articles, books) that at
first glance, I would not choose or think I would disagree with. This exercise has helped me to see other
points of view and logics, and while I may disagree with them, at least I’m
aware they exist. This helps me to see
the world and people in different ways and makes me re-define how I “measure”
(or, better, how I should avoid measuring).
My prayer
today is for all of us to be wise and full of love whenever we’re facing a
situation in which we have to measure or judge.
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