Stop negative judgments
Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Sat, 02 Mar 2019 16:10:54 +0000
A PARISH priest happened to meet one of his parishioners in a mall and said, “Johnny, I haven’t seen you in church for a long time. What happened?”
“Father, I’ve stopped going to church. There are a lot of hypocrites there.”
Whereupon, the priest smiled and said: “Well, there’s always room for one more (hypocrite).”
If one goes to church only when all are sinless, nobody would go to church anymore.
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As somebody said, “The Church is an institution of sinners.” Apart from having a self-righteous or “holier-than-thou” attitude, do not be harsh and rash in judging others.
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Remember the teaching of Jesus in today’s gospel: “How can you say, `brother, let me remove the speck of your eye,’ yet cannot see because there is a log in your own eye? You hypocrite! First remove the log out of your own eye, and then you will be able to see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye’” (Luke 6,42).
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Christ’s words also apply to those who are always attacking the Catholic Church and her imperfect clergy, and that includes a swell-headed, cursing You-Know-Who.
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Jesus understands our human nature very well. He recognizes our weaknesses. He knows fully well that no one with authority or responsibility, he be pope or president, parent or priest, is perfect.
Although as people charged with responsibility, they must strive to show good example or be credible in order to command respect. As the Roman saying goes, “Corruptio optimi pessima” (the corruption of the best is the worst).
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Self-righteousness is a form of pride which attributes one’s accomplishments to oneself and forgets the efforts of others and even God’s grace. As would a log in the eye, pride induces blindness.
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Spiritual blindness can afflict anybody. It may be a husband or a wife justifying his or her fault, a problematic worker or boss who faults everybody but not himself.
The sickness fails to see one’s own sins or the virtues of others. What’s worst is that he does not realize that he’s sick at all.
When that happens, his or her sickness is the most incurable.
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HOMOSEXUALS NOT CONDEMNED. The Catholic Church does not condemn and discriminate against gays and lesbians since, having been created by God, they have their own dignity.
Pope Francis once said: “Who am I to judge?” He also said, “There are laws (of the Church). And I’m also under the law.”
The Pope’s comment does not mean that homosexuals, whether priests or not, are free to practice homosexual acts, much less enter into same-sex marriage.
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And this is so because the Church teaching is based on the Sacred Scripture: “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. Those who do such actions shall be put to death” (Leviticus 18,22).
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In St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, it is written: “Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural, men committing shameless acts with men, and as a result they bring upon themselves the punishment they deserve” (Romans 1,26-27).
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Since homosexuals of Catholic and other religions like Islam cannot look forward to marriage while their orientation continues, the Church teaches that they should be treated with utmost pastoral care and understanding.
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It goes without saying that even married couples, priests, and singles for life have rules and moral limits to follow.
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