Mt 7,1-5 – Monday of the XII Week of Ordinary Time
«Do not judge, so as not to be judged».
This word of Jesus, in today’s Gospel, is often misunderstood. At first glance it almost seems like an invitation to renounce any form of discernment. But this is not what Jesus means. We need to judge in the sense of evaluating, distinguishing, understanding what is good from what is bad. Without this ability we would not be able to orient ourselves in life. The judgment Jesus talks about is something else. It is that judgment that turns into condemnation. It is the attitude of those who claim to enclose a person within a definition, a mistake, a fall, a fragility. It is the judgment that leaves no room for growth, for change, for the possibility of redemption.
In this sense judgment closes, while love opens. Perhaps for this reason we can say that accusatory judgment is the language of the devil. In Scripture the devil is called “the accuser.” His way of acting consists in reducing a person to their sin, convincing them that they can never be different from what they have done. The accusation imprisons, crushes and takes away hope. God, on the other hand, looks at things in a completely different way. His mercy is not a form of naivety that ignores evil. God sees everything with extreme clarity. He sees the truth of our choices, our contradictions and our wounds. But look at everything with the intention of saving, not humiliating.
Mercy is God’s way of judging the world: a look that recognizes evil without identifying the person with the evil he or she has done. This is why Jesus invites us to a profound conversion of our gaze. How often are we strict with others and indulgent with ourselves. How many times we immediately see other people’s mistakes and struggle to recognize our own. The Gospel instead asks us to learn God’s style: a true look, but never without love; lucid, but never without compassion. When we stop condemning others, we do not become less attentive to the truth. We simply become more like the Father. And the measure of our Christian maturity is not the ability to find people’s mistakes, but the ability to see in each one a story that God has not yet stopped saving.
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