Today, Jesus specifies how that same love is to be lived. A good point of entry is judging others. “Do not judge. Take the plank out of your eye before attempting to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye”. This instruction is a powerful club that is often wielded to “silence conversion” and not just conversation. Just the accusation “You are judgemental” is enough to stop people in the tracks. Tell me you do not fear this label that oozes self-righteousness?[1]
What does it mean that we are not to judge? This would be true if one’s attitude is “I am better than you”. But if one’s approach is the spiritual well-being of others, that would be different because admonition is a spiritual work of mercy. To check or counsel is not setting oneself up as judge but it is an action that comes from a space where the relationship is marked by love and caring. Trouble arises when smug sanctimony is dressed up as love for the spiritual well-being of others. We can be blind to our holier-than-thou attitude. The older we are, the more judge we tend to be.
We must not be sanctimonious but judge we must. Jesus called the religious leaders of His time, “brood of vipers”. If that is not a unflattering judgement, what is it? However, His assessment when dealing with situations of sin gives us a clue on how we ought to proceed. To the Woman at the Well He showed mercy, and like the Woman caught in Adultery, sent her off reminding her to sin no more, demonstrating that true judgement is rooted in charity. He judged because there are morals attached to our relationships.
In a sense, we might as well be “judgemental”. This mindset does not refer to a wilfulness in which we set out to be obnoxiously so. Rather, it comes “naturally” when the “world” lowers its standard. In other words, Christ’s teachings have not changed. Society has. And as it does, it expects everybody to jump on board with the accepted norms and the Catholic Church is not exempt from this pressure to fall in line with the latest trend or newest narrative.
Think of society’s positions towards premarital sex, divorce and contraception. These were once taboo in all Christian denominations. When the Pill was discovered, it changed the landscape of freedom. The body, once upon a time, was sacred ground for the purpose of procreation is now inebriated with the nectar of abandonment and is transformed into the playground of recreation. Sex no longer serves a sacred purpose but has become a slave of pleasure. Even Catholics are overwhelmed by carnal decadence that we can no longer recognise the difference between purpose and pleasure.
What is the difference between Mrs Wallis Simpson or the Duchess of Windsor and Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles, aka Duchess of Cornwall? Both are divorcees. One could not become a Queen consort. The other will become one upon the demise of HM QEII. That is how much our attitude towards divorce has changed.
The Church continues to embrace the sacred truth about the human body and its place in the schema of salvation. The world cannot tolerate such dissent. As long as the Church holds onto the sanctity of marriage and family life, she is already on collision course with the current thought police. Our position makes us judgemental. To illustrate, we think that the Church’s position on divorce comes from Sacred Scripture. But it is also based on our understanding of God who is forever faithful. How do we know that? The only human reality that is capable of symbolising God’s steadfastness is marriage. Marital covenant between a man and a woman symbolises God’s faithfulness to humanity and Christ’s fidelity to the Church.
Christ is always faithful and nothing can come between God’s love for us and Christ’s devotion to His Church. If people make mistakes, why does the Catholic Church not allow for divorce? Is that not cruel? The nature of iconic representation is that the allowance for divorce is at the same time a statement that our God is not that faithful after all, which is never the case. Along the same line, why do we frown upon premarital sex? As the argument goes, what is wrong when the couple loves each other? Again we revert to the institute of marriage as a sacrament. As a sign, marriage symbolises Christ’s love for the Church, which means premarital sex becomes a lie. The couple is not married and they do not stand in for Christ and His Church. There is no representation and therefore, premarital sex is akin to asking heaven to witness to a lie.
When society lowers its morals, we will always be deemed as “judgemental”. In the last two or three decades, we have taken a deserved beating with regard to the reality that we have not lived up to the standards we expected of the world. Our failure is indeed our shame but our failures do not negate the truth on which the teachings of the Church stand.[2] Her sons and daughters may fail but Holy Mother Church must declare what is true, whether society approves it or not, and whether we ourselves can stand up to scrutiny. Judgement on the morality of a conduct or action should never be based on one’s personal merit or failure in behaviour thereof. Credibility or the integrity of the one who judges is a good thing but it can also be crippling because what this means is that as long as one is failing, one does not have a right to speak. The result is that one must not take a stand. In which case, nothing is ever wrong because everyone is failing!!
While it may be true from the perspective of hypocrisy that one should speak with credibility. Still it does not address the issue that there is an objective standard to judge a behaviour regardless of one’s personal failure.
Last Sunday, a point was made that we can trust God even though we may be wrongly judged. That despite how others may unfairly assessed us, we have to worry only of the judgement of God. This faith that grants peace and serenity in the face of injustice is based on a view of life that stretches into eternity. The same eternity is the reason for the courage to take a stand because everything that Jesus condemns or what the Church prohibits is based on that.
We resolutely make a stand even if that may come across as judgemental because society is confused and conflicted in the areas of personal morality, common decency and also right doctrine. We should rescue the scriptural instruction not to judge from the timidity of being labelled as self-righteous and restore it to the rightful place of charity and desiring the spiritual good of the other. We do not judge because we are better than others or take a stand because we are holier than thou but because we care about the eternal fate of souls. This conforms with the supreme law of the Church that is the salvation of souls (Lex suprema salus animarum). We judge now or take a stand because one day we will have to give an account of our life before the Judgement Seat of Christ.
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[1] This dogmatic sticker can easily be tagged unto Catholics. It is ironical that society is quick to perceive and be offended by racism, sexism, orientation. Yet, the very same victimised society has no problem condemning the Catholic Church as judgemental.
[2] The failure of the messenger does not invalidate the message. The lapse of the individual does not render truth any less true. Just because I failed to live up to God’s commandments does not mean that the commandments are useless.
