Monday in the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time, June 21, 2021

The Feast of St. Aloysius Gonzaga

Matthew 7:1-5

Jesus said to his disciples: “Stop judging, that you may not be judged. For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you. Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove that splinter from your eye,’ while the wooden beam is in your eye? You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.”

“Do not judge” sounds to us like, “Do not form and hold an opinion.” But just after the Lord tells his disciples not to judge, he tells them, “Give not that which is holy to dogs; neither cast ye your pearls before swine.”  The Lord himself seems to judge, calling unbelievers “dogs” and “swine”.  He also implies that his disciples should note that certain people are “dogs” and “swine” so as not to waste what is holy on them.  The Greek word translated here as “to judge” has many meanings, but the one that fits the context the best is “to condemn”.  We cannot do this because it is not our place.  Only one who is higher than us has the standing to condemn.  Even the Lord Jesus says it is not his work to condemn: “For God sent not his Son into the world, to judge the world: but that the world may be saved by him” (John 3, 17).  And again, “And if any man hear my words and keep them not, I do not judge him for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that despises me and receives not my words has one that does judge him. The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:47–48).  That is, the Lord came the first time not to judge but to save; but those who refused his salvation he will judge when he comes the second time.  And so we leave the condemnation to God.  We can criticize, with an eye to correction, but we cannot use the this fraternal correcting as an excuse for acting out on our hatred and grudges.  And this is what the Lord does in speaking of “dogs” and “swine”: the disciple, recognizing a person acting in bad faith or obstinate in their refusal of the Gospel (or of  fraternal correction, for that matter), should leave the person be and go his way, in hopes that time will allow the person to change.  “The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.”  The key is to act in charity.

“How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove that splinter from your eye,’ while the wooden beam is in your eye?”  The Lord gives an example of how we sometimes judge under the cover of charity.  We set ourselves up as seeing the fault in others while pretending to have no fault ourselves, and we do this professing that we do it for the other’s good out of charity.  

In studying the Lord in these verses we see how we “fulfills” the Law, we admire his wisdom and his authority.  There is nothing about “judging” in the Old Law.  There are prohibitions against certain actions and commandments to carry out certain others.  But the Lord shows what lies within these so that we may not simply appear just according to the letter of the Law, but holy in his eyes.