MARCH62023

One of the commandments of Jesus: Thou shalt not judge others. We have to make judgements all the time. It is characteristic of human knowing to judge. As one scholar put it:  “it is only by judgment that there emerges a distinction between fact and fiction,  logic and sophistry, philosophy and myth, history and legend, astronomy and astrology, chemistry and alchemy.”  What Jesus warns us about is judging other people. We cannot know what is in their hearts. We do not know what has happened to them in the past that brought them to this point. Therefore we are not to judge others’ motives. St. Ignatius of Loyola put it this way:  Every good Christian ought to be more eager to put a good interpretation on a neighbor…. One should search out every appropriate means through which, by understanding the statement in a good way, it may be saved.