We are living in a world now where scandal seems to be always at the forefront of the news, in a time many would call very dark indeed, in which drama seems to be heightened by all forms of media (take a look at any form of social media in particular) in which people are constantly judging, accusing, criticizing, blaming, pointing fingers. The President of the United States is a constant target and lately so is the Catholic Church, all the way up to the Pope himself. And while I’m not saying any of the news and drama encircling either is on target or not, nor do I want to give my opinion on any of it since I am far from well-informed on all of the facts, I would just like to encourage everyone to take a step back for a minute and think about what Jesus says on some of this…and to take a look at ourselves and how quick we are to judge others.
What Does Jesus Say?
In the Mass reading yesterday James told us, “show no partiality as you adhere to the faith…For if a man with gold rings and fine clothes comes into your assembly, and a poor person in shabby clothes also comes in, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Sit here, please, †while you say to the poor one, “Stand there, †or “Sit at my feet, â€have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil designs?” (James 2:1-5) How often I am quick to judge others…and not just those who may be shabbily dressed but other people in general with whom I disagree, or who rub me the wrong way, or who aren’t in my “inner circle.” Jesus warns us, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?” (Matt 7:1-29). Judgement can come in so many forms…fear, anxiety, gossip, slander, anger, entitlement, arrogance, exclusion…and in so many actions or words both big and small.
Just Like Jonah…
In my novel, The Runaway Prophet, the main character Rory Justice is a modern-day Jonah who is very judgmental and doesn’t want to help the FBI save the sinners of Las Vegas (modern-day Nineveh) from a new Islamic State radical terrorist mafia underground (modern-day evil) because he feels they are not really worth saving. Yet God has other plans and until Rory bends to them, he keeps experiencing hardship and heartache…a good example of how we can try to run from God’s will for us but we really can’t hide, and a good example of what Jesus warns will happen above in the Gospel of Matthew. In fact, Jesus compares himself to a modern-day Jonah: “A wicked and adulterous generation demands a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so the Son of Man will be three days in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now One greater than Jonah is here.”
Today’s Generation…
Yet, sadly, this generation we are in right now still refuses to repent and listen. Many of you know by now I am Catholic. With all of the scandal in the Church surfacing lately. I have been asked if I plan to stay in the church or continue to donate to the church or even go to Mass on Sundays. My answer is an unwavering ‘yes.’ Do I feel ashamed of many of the leaders of the Catholic Church who have been doing the scandalous deeds and that all Church leaders need to be completely truthful and transparent when it comes to uncovering every last sin and sinner? Absolutely. But they are men, some of them with extreme power, fallible human beings, some who have allowed evil to guide their actions…they are not the Church, which in my belief is guided by One Being only and that is Jesus Christ, who is the “way, the truth and the life.”
I Pray…
that as Jesus promised us, the truth shall set us free, and I pray that God will guide me to be less judgmental each day with my fellow human beings.
