Monday, Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

I often find that what Saint Paul says in his letters is a great commentary on what Jesus says in the gospels, even though the gospels had not been written down at the time Paul wrote his letters. In his first letter to the Corinthians, he is aware that some members of the church there are judging him unfavorably. He writes, ‘But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or any human court. I do not even judge myself… It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore, do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart’. Paul is reminding us that no one is in a position to judge us, just as we are not in a position to judge others. Indeed we cannot even judge ourselves. It is only the Lord who can judge us, because he alone can see what is hidden deep within us, ‘the purposes of the heart’. This is very much the message of Jesus in the gospel reading. He warns us against judging others, because we cannot see others clearly. We cannot see them with the eyes of the Lord. Our own failings and weaknesses distort how we see others and all of reality. Because we cannot see clearly, we must leave all judgment to the Lord. What we can do is try to work on our own blind spots by turning from our failings and growing in, what Jesus calls at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, a deeper virtue. This we can only do with the help of the Holy Spirit, because it is only the Spirit who can change our hearts.