Judge not, and ye shall not be judged," said the Saviour of our souls;
"condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned:" and the Apostle Saint
Paul, "Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, Who both will
bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest
the counsels of the hearts." Of a truth, hasty judgments are most
displeasing to God, and men's judgments are hasty, because we are not
judges one of another, and by judging we usurp our Lord's own office.
Man's judgment is hasty, because the chief malice of sin lies in the
intention and counsel of the heart, which is shrouded in darkness to us.
Moreover, man's judgments are hasty, because each one has enough to do
in judging himself, without undertaking to judge his neighbour. If we
would not be judged, it behoves us alike not to judge others, and to
judge ourselves. Our Lord forbids the one, His Apostle enjoins the
other, saying, "If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged."
But alas! for the most part we precisely reverse these precepts, judging
our neighbour, which is forbidden on all sides, while rarely judging
ourselves, as we are told to do.
We must proceed to rectify rash judgments, according to their cause.
Some hearts there are so bitter and harsh by nature, that everything
turns bitter under their touch; men who, in the Prophet's words, "turn
judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth."Such as
these greatly need to be dealt with by some wise spiritual physician,
for this bitterness being natural to them, it is hard to conquer; and
although it be rather an imperfection than a sin, still it is very
dangerous, because it gives rise to and fosters rash judgments and
slander within the heart. Others there are who are guilty of rash
judgments less out of a bitter spirit than from pride, supposing to
exalt their own credit by disparaging that of others. These are
self-sufficient, presumptuous people, who stand so high in their own
conceit that they despise all else as mean and worthless. It was the
foolish Pharisee who said, "I am not as other men are." Others, again,
have not quite such overt pride, but rather a lurking little
satisfaction in beholding what is wrong in others, in order to
appreciate more fully what they believe to be their own superiority.
This satisfaction is so well concealed, so nearly imperceptible, that it
requires a clear sight to discover it, and those who experience it need
that it be pointed out to them. Some there are who seek to excuse and
justify themselves to their own conscience, by assuming readily that
others are guilty of the same faults, or as great ones, vainly imagining
that the sin becomes less culpable when shared by many. Others, again,
give way to rash judgments merely because they take pleasure in a
philosophic analysis and dissection of their neighbours' characters; and
if by ill luck they chance now and then to be right, their presumption
and love of criticism strengthens almost incurably.
Then there are people whose judgment is solely formed by inclination;
who always think well of those they like, and ill of those they dislike.
To this, however, there is one rare exception, which nevertheless we do
sometimes meet, when an excessive love provokes a false judgment
concerning its object; the hideous result of a diseased, faulty,
restless affection, which is in fact jealousy; an evil passion capable,
as everybody knows, of condemning others of perfidy and adultery upon
the most trivial and fanciful ground. In like manner, fear, ambition,
and other moral infirmities often tend largely to produce suspicion and
rash judgments.
What remedy can we apply? They who drink the juice of the Ethiopian herb
Ophiusa imagine that they see serpents and horrors everywhere; and
those who drink deep of pride, envy, ambition, hatred, will see harm and
shame in every one they look upon. The first can only be cured by
drinking palm wine, and so I say of these latter,--Drink freely of the
sacred wine of love, and it will cure you of the evil tempers which lead
you to these perverse judgments. So far from seeking out that which is
evil, Love dreads meeting with it, and when such meeting is unavoidable,
she shuts her eyes at the first symptom, and then in her holy
simplicity she questions whether it were not merely a fantastic shadow
which crossed her path rather than sin itself. Or if Love is forced to
recognise the fact, she turns aside hastily, and strives to forget what
she has seen. Of a truth, Love is the great healer of all ills, and of
this above the rest. Everything looks yellow to a man that has the
jaundice; and it is said that the only cure is through the soles of the
feet. Most assuredly the sin of rash judgments is a spiritual jaundice,
which makes everything look amiss to those who have it; and he who would
be cured of this malady must not be content with applying remedies to
his eyes or his intellect, he must attack it through the affections,
which are as the soul's feet. If your affections are warm and tender,
your judgment will not be harsh; if they are loving, your judgment will
be the same. Holy Scripture offers us three striking illustrations.
Isaac, when in the Land of Gerar, gave out that Rebecca was his sister,
but when Abimelech saw their familiarity, he at once concluded that she
was his wife.A malicious mind would rather have supposed that there was
some unlawful connection between them, but Abimelech took the most
charitable view of the case that was possible. And so ought we always to
judge our neighbour as charitably as may be; and if his actions are
many-sided, we should accept the best. Again, when Saint Joseph found
that the Blessed Virgin was with child, knowing her to be pure and holy,
he could not believe that there was any sin in her, and he left all
judgment to God, although there was strong presumptive evidence on which
to condemn her. And the Holy Spirit speaks of Saint Joseph as "a just
man." When a just man cannot see any excuse for what is done by a person
in whose general worth he believes, he still refrains from judging him,
and leaves all to God's Judgment. Again, our Crucified Saviour, while
He could not wholly ignore the sin of those who Crucified Him, yet made
what excuse He might for them, pleading their ignorance. And so when we
cannot find any excuse for sin, let us at least claim what compassion we
may for it, and impute it to the least damaging motives we can find, as
ignorance or infirmity.
Are we never, then, to judge our neighbour? you ask. Never, my child. It
is God Who judges criminals brought before a court of law. He uses
magistrates to convey His sentence to us; they are His interpreters, and
have only to proclaim His law. If they go beyond this, and are led by
their own passions, then they do themselves judge, and for so doing they
will be judged. It is forbidden to all men alike, as men, to judge one
another.
We do not necessarily judge because we see or are conscious of something
wrong. Rash judgment always presupposes something that is not clear, in
spite of which we condemn another. It is not wrong to have doubts
concerning a neighbour, but we ought to be very watchful lest even our
doubts or suspicions be rash and hasty. A malicious person seeing Jacob
kiss Rachel at the well-side,or Rebecca accepting jewels from Eleazer,a
stranger, might have suspected them of levity, though falsely and
unreasonably. If an action is in itself indifferent, it is a rash
suspicion to imagine that it means evil, unless there is strong
circumstantial evidence to prove such to be the case. And it is a rash
judgment when we draw condemnatory inferences from an action which may
be blameless.
Those who keep careful watch over their conscience are not often liable
to form rash judgments, for just as when the clouds lower the bees make
for the shelter of their hive, so really good people shrink back into
themselves, and refuse to be mixed up with the clouds and fogs of their
neighbour's questionable doings, and rather than meddle with others,
they consecrate their energies on their own improvement and good
resolutions.
No surer sign of an unprofitable life than when people give way to
censoriousness and inquisitiveness into the lives of other men. Of
course exception must be made as to those who are responsible for
others, whether in family or public life;--to all such it becomes a
matter of conscience to watch over the conduct of their fellows. Let
them fulfil their duty lovingly, and let them also give heed to restrain
themselves within the bounds of that duty.
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