“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. (Matthew 7:1-5 NABRE)
Jesus, during his Sermon on the Mount, warns us about judging others. He explains the cause-effect relationship between our conduct toward each other and God’s conduct toward us.* This is not a prohibition against recognizing the faults of others, but against passing judgment in a spirit of arrogance, forgetful of one’s own faults.*
Lord, open my eyes and remove my blindness toward my own faults. Allow me the great grace to see my own weaknesses and shortcomings so that I might work at removing them. Make me strong in prayer so that I might remember you are the real source of change in my life, that it is not by my own effort alone that I will change. And Lord God, though I cannot help but notice faults in others, bind my thoughts so that I might not even approach judgment of them, guard my heart so that I might not ever forget, in arrogance, my own condition. May I see only you in those around me, your Spirit, your fingerprint, your holy presence.
Today, I will thank God for those in public service who work with sincere hearts to maintain and improve our communities.
Saint Thomas More, patron of attorneys, civil servants, court clerks, lawyers, politicians, and public servant, pray for us.
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