for June 22
Monday of the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time

I recall a dinner conversation years ago with fellow Jesuit priests. One at the table remarked, “we should be careful about judging another’s servant”. I remember his statement in light of today’s passage in Matthew’s Gospel. We were talking about our brother Jesuits at another institution. The conversation was veering toward potential “gossip” and this wise man at the table was putting out a warning to all of us. That is, we should be careful not to judge another person who is one of God’s beloved creatures. In other words, the one who has the authority and power to judge the human person is God alone. God is the ultimate judge who sees deeply into the human heart. We need to tread lightly on this front. This is one way of reading Matthew’s Gospel today.

Yet thinking more about Jesus’ teachings here in Matthew raise various questions for me. It seems clear that we cannot be “given a pass” on our need and even our responsibilities to judge others. We make judgments all the time and we need to do so. Professionals such as doctors, nurses, lawyers, corporate and business managers must judge people and situations all the time. To live in our highly complex world requires our good and careful judgment almost continuously. It seems that our present on-line existence and the explosion of technology in recent decades make it possible to judge and evaluate nearly everything and everyone. Think of the vast sea of reviews of restaurants, doctors, lawyers, movies, books, teachers, etc. and the kinds of communication possible on social media today. I can’t help but wonder how technology and the capacity for 24/7 connectivity and immediate communication influences our capacity for the judgment of persons, places, and situations? It may be that part of what Jesus is teaching in this passage is more about “the how” we judge and live with each other. How do we give one another feedback and criticism when this is needed and meant to be helpful? What is our personal stance before others? How well do we ourselves live with integrity when we need to make judgments about others? These are important and enduring life questions for us.

This passage in Matthew suggests that all of our judgments of others need to be charitable and perhaps also open to revision. It may be that all of our judgments are in a sense “preliminary” since God is the ultimate and final judge of persons and human affairs. One key here seems to be that we need to judge others with love and kindness—in the same way that God deals with each of us. The images here such as “wooden beams” and “splinters” in our eyes and those of others are striking. It may these are references back to early sayings of the Rabbis that were well known. The reference to “speck” and “beam” in human eyes may be a direct reference back to the Book of Leviticus (Lev. 19:17) which encourages that “you shall reason with your neighbor”. The Rabbis taught that when we correct others we should always be acting with integrity and not with hypocrisy. Rabbinic literature contains an early saying, “remove the beam from between your own eyes” which Jesus may be quoting here in Matthew.

In the Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, suggests in a prayer meditation that we should try to see others in the same ways that Christ sees them. In this meditation, St. Ignatius proposes that the person who seeks to pray should walk out in the city or where ever they reside and look very closely at all the people they see from many walks of life and imagine what God’s immeasurable graced love for them is really like. When we can begin to do this, our vision of others can radically change and be entirely transformed. This may be a good and wise response for us to the message and invitation of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel today.
—Francis T. Hannafey SJ

Today’s readings can be found on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops website.