Today's Gospel reading:
Jesus said to his disciples: Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.
[Luke 6:36-38]
This discourse is powerful for me in light of recent events, some of which I have written about here. It is also a relatively simple set of commands with accompanying results.
- Stop judging = you won't be judged
- Stop condemning = you won't be condemned
- Forgive = you will be forgiven
- Give = you will be given to
- How you measure = how you will be measured
Applying these simple precepts to recent events is enlightening.
- Calling someone who disagrees with you a "slut," or justifying such language.
- Denying Holy Communion to someone because she is a lesbian.
I'll stop at two, because those have the potential to inspire a lot of reflection.
Pax et bonum.
Brother,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to read that you will no longer judge or condemn anyone who disagrees with you on church issues.
Peace,
Ralf ofs
You're not implying that disagreeing with someone is the same as judging them, are you? After all, Jesus disagreed with much of the religious establishment of his day. One may disagree, I think, without judging motives, intentions, etc.
DeleteI wouldn't count on it, Ralf. ;)
Delete...says the guy who says I'm trying to destroy the Church and ought to leave it? That's rich. :)
DeleteI'm judgmental as anybody else, including you, Thom. ;)
DeleteThom,
Deletethe difference between judging someone and disagreeing with someone is very thin.
You can disagree with a person or an opinion of a person, but you cannot judge an opinion - you judge a person, a being made in the image of God.
If you support sanctions against a priest who holds different views on distributing communion, for example, I am afraid that this loks rther like a judgement, not like a disagreement.
When did I say that I support "sanctions?"
DeleteIn your "UPDATE: It's not a personell issue" article you quoted and expressed your support for a list of necessary actions, that both the local bishop and the priest himself ought to take. This is more than just the expression of disagreement from my point of view (maybe I considerthos
DeleteYou dind't want the priest to be thrown out of the diocese, but the woman herself, Barbara Johnson, wanted the priest to be removed. I don't know whether she succeeded, but she certainly judged him severely (I haven't read any comments from your side about that).
I actually wanted to add "(maybe I consider those things as being more violent than you do)"
DeleteProviding contact information for the Archdiocese of Washington is hardly calling for the priest's ouster. As you well know, that's not my call to make. However, I would have thought that an apology from the priest would have been forthcoming. We can see now, based on recent developments, that that will likely never happen.
DeleteI was reading the Epistle of St. Peter last night, and thought it meshed well with this (I know big surprise). What Peter does is flip it around. So we forgive because we have been forgiven, we have not been condemned so we don't need to condemn others. He writes from a context of persecution, and seems to be urging a nonviolent approach with the understanding that the end is neigh. What I found intriguing is that he sees Christians as Stewards of Grace. I thought that was sort of cool:
ReplyDelete"But before all things have a constant mutual charity among yourselves: for charity covereth a multitude of sins. Using hospitality one towards another, without murmuring, As every man hath received grace, ministering the same one to another: as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." 1 P. 8-10 (DR)
That's an awesome connection, Kevin. Thanks for pointing it out.
DeleteI was also thinking about this in terms of the Gifts from the Holy Spirit. I can't help but to believe that the level of perfection required to meet the standards of being stewards of Grace is something we achieve on our own.
DeleteI found this correspondence between the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Cardinal Virtues that I thought you might enjoy. In this Aquinas draws a correspondence between Wisdom and Charity. I'm pasting from wikipedia:
In Summa Theologica II.II, Thomas Aquinas asserts the following correspondences between the seven Capital Virtues and the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit:
The gift of wisdom corresponds to the virtue of charity.
The gifts of understanding and knowledge correspond to the virtue of faith.
The gift of counsel (right judgement) corresponds to the virtue of prudence.
The gift of fortitude corresponds to the virtue of courage.
The gift of fear of the Lord corresponds to the virtue of hope.
The gift of Reverence corresponds to the virtue of justice.
Like. Very much like.
DeleteThanks, I should have typed "something we DO NOT achieve on our own." What a difference a word make. *sigh*
DeleteThis is the first time I am coming here, and have one question: why on earth would you have text exhortingus to "love live live lent" then have a silhouette of Mohammedan praying underneath and the Arabic word "Allah" written over him? is this a perverse joke?
ReplyDelete"Allah" is Arabic for "God." I'm sorry if speaking about God is offensive, but I do it often.
Delete"Allah" is the generic word for God in common Arabic spoken by Christians. Alloho is the liturgical word for God Arabic-speaking Christians use. Allah is the "proper" name for God to a Mohammedan (as YHWH is in Hebrew). Given it is written on a Mohammedan praying "in orans" position, written in green/black/white which are the Mohammedan colors, I would say you are clearly being a provocateur. Either that or you are clearly ignorant and devoid of anything meaningful to say in a Christian context, and need to draw from other non-Christian sources.
DeleteEither way, you are not very insightful.
Speaking of provocateurs, welcome to my blog.
DeleteI am well-aware of Arabic and references to God in that language, as well as prayer positions and symbolic colors. I'm sorry you don't like what I have to say. You need not visit anymore; I hope you don't feel coerced into sticking around.
I don't. and this will be my last post. I actually came here from another blog you post on and was going to give you the benefit of the doubt. I see that was very misplaced.
DeleteA. Dude could be a Muslim. Who cares?
DeleteB. Based on your observations of appearance, my priest must be a crypto-Muslim - he's got a beard, and I saw him praying in the orans posture just this morning at Mass.
C. Allah is simply the only word for God in Arabic. But please, don't take my word for it: http://araborthodoxy.blogspot.com/2009/11/word-allah.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allah
Thanks, Bill. He just came to start a fight, I'm sure.
Delete