John the Baptist was criticized for his asceticism. Jesus was criticized for his table fellowship. No matter what you do, you are going to be criticized. So discern what God wants of you and don’t listen to the nay-sayers. What about the flip side? How do we avoid becoming critical people? Father Domingo tells the story of complaining to one of the older priests about how hard he was working compared with the others. The wise old man answered, “They are all doing the best that they can.” That’s it, really. We stop judging others when we realize there isn’t any objective standard. God deals with us all individually, according to what we are capable of doing. We judge to see others (and ourselves) gently.
