Judging another might not be a bad thing

Monday, July 10th, 2023

The next liturgical season is Advent!

In the wake of the streak of feasts of Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday and Body & Blood of Christ behind us, we’re now in what is called Ordinary time.

It is a unique time to give ourselves permission to be seduced more deeply and intimately into the mystery of God’s presence in our lives.

True story

I love gazing into the night sky and marvelling at God’s gifted presence in God’s creation.

I’ve got my father to thank for this since he loved to follow the tv series called ‘the night sky’ fronted by Peter Read.

Dare should one of my 5 siblings and I make a noise, we would be instantly silenced.

The other Friday evening I finally fulfilled a long-time desire to visit Whanganui’s historic Ward Observatory.

Peering through the 161-year-old telescope, I could see the craters on the moon.

Absolutely amazing!

The guide had an infectious passion for outer space and filled us with awe in his easy-to-understand explanations of the 5 main layers of earth’s atmosphere, galaxies and stars.

We were left spellbound at his presentation.

What left me shamefully speechless was the fact that the observatory guide’s day job was gathering the grocery trolley’s left in car parks and storing them in the trolley bay outside our regular supermarket.

Why was I surprised that this could be the same person or that he could be more than he appeared on the outside?

I never made any verbal judgement because I value what he does, but I must have unconsciously, hence my surprise.

Often, we only scratch the surface in our relationships and miss seeing what God sees in each other.

My reception to receive First Communion and Confirmation was put on hold because I failed to answer the questions fired at me correctly.

Back in those black-and-white catechism days when one’s faith was gauged on knowing the facts of faith proved troubling for me because no one recognised that deep inside was a strong awareness of God and an innate joy in knowing Jesus.

Critically judging another on outward appearances, or what we see in the first instance, only serves to narrow our appreciation of their natural and spiritual capabilities.

Of course, we all make many judgment calls during our day.

From what to cook for tea to the right time to prune the roses.

From choosing to apologise or attend a meeting to deciding what situations mightn’t be safe.

Positive judgments can affirm and warm our hearts.

Cruel verbal judgments cut deep into our very souls.

Do we really believe ourselves to be more superiorly perfect to point the finger at others when we don’t know the whole truth of the person we’re condemning?

Jesus didn’t mince His words calling this hypocrisy. (Matthew 7:5)

The bottom line is that highlighting another’s faults and failings has more to do with oneself. Those flaws in ourselves that we fail to own yet see with crystal clarity in others.

Jesus puts this another way by using the graphic image of seeing the splinter in another’s eye but fail to notice the plank in our own. (Matthew 7:3)

Come the end of the day, judging others presents us with an opportunity – a choice. Either to own the shadow parts of the self enabling us to become more fully our Baptismal selves – or not?

Look how Jesus was able to slice through Paul’s criminal record to become an evangeliser, or Peter’s impulsiveness to name him church leader and Jesus was able to trust the astute unnamed Samaritan woman to tell the village of her encounter with Him.

Are we not able to do likewise?

There is nothing boring about these 33 weeks of ordinary time.

When we find ourselves nit-picking another – pause – drop the magnifying glass and pick up the mirror!

And for the record, I do put my grocery trolley away when I’ve loaded my groceries in the car!