In his Monday morning Mass, the Pope talked about judging others, by explaining that God is the one and only judge.
POPE FRANCIS
'If we want to follow Jesusâ?? path, more than accusers, we must defend others before God. You may think, 'I see something bad in so and so, should I defend him? No, stay quiet. Go pray before God, just like Jesus did. Pray for that person, but don't judge. If you do that, you too will be judged when you do something wrong.â?
He then added that the devil always accuses others, but Jesus, he said, goes before God to defend us when accused.
SUMMARY OF POPE'S HOMILY:
Source: Vatican Radio
'One who judges puts himself in Godâ??s place and thus faces certain defeat in life because heâ??ll be paid back in kind. And he'll live in confusion, seeing a 'speckâ? in his brotherâ??s eye rather than the 'logâ? that blocks his own sight. During Mass on Monday morning, 23 June, offering his reflections on the dayâ??s passage from the Gospel of Matthew (7:1-5), the Pope advised us to defend others and avoid judging them.
The Holy Father turned immediately to the dayâ??s reading from Matthew, which presents Jesus who 'seeks to convince us not to judgeâ?: a commandment that 'he repeats many timesâ?. In fact, 'judging others leads us to hypocrisyâ?. And Jesus defines hypocrites as those who act as judges. Because, the Pope explained, 'a person who judges gets it wrong, becomes confused and is defeatedâ?.
One who judges 'always gets it wrongâ?. Heâ??s wrong, Pope Francis explained, 'because he takes the place of God, who is the only judge: taking that place is is taking the wrong place!â?. Believing you have the authority to judge everything: people, life, everythingâ?. And 'with the capacity to judgeâ? you also assume you have 'the capacity to condemnâ?.
The Gospel recounts that 'judging others was one of the acts of the legal experts whom Jesus called â??hypocritesâ??â?. These are the people who 'judge everythingâ?. However, the worst thing is that, in doing this, they put themselves in Godâ??s place, and God is the only judgeâ?. And to judge, God 'takes time, he waitsâ?. These people, instead, act hastily. 'This is why one who judges gets it wrong, simply because he assumes a place that isnâ??t hisâ?.
The Pope clarified that this person 'doesnâ??t only get it wrong; he also gets confusedâ?. And 'he often becomes obsessed with whom he wants to judge, with that person â?? so, so very obsessed!â? Sometimes losing sleep over that 'speckâ?, he repeats, 'But I want to remove that speck for you!â?. Meanwhile, he isnâ??t aware 'of the log he hasâ? in his own eye. In this sense, he gets 'confusedâ?, and 'he thinks the log is that speckâ?. In this way, one who judges is a person who 'confuses realityâ?, he is deluded.
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