Judging Others 

   “If you judge people you have no time to love them.” (St. Teresa of Calcutta) 

   It seems whenever people get together the conversation quickly turns to judging those with whom we disagree.  I admit that I am as guilty of this as anyone else.  And granted, there are a lot of people both in and out of the church who are accepting and promoting evil that we, as Christians, should disagree with, but it is not our place to judge them.

   I would hate to think that I will be judged on all the stupid and even evil things I have done in my life.  We all have things in our past that would devastate us should they become known.  And yet we have the nerve to judge others.  Jesus said, “Stop judging, that you may not be judged.  For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.” (Matt 7: 1 – 2).  If we judge others harshly we too shall be judged harshly.

   That doesn’t mean that we should not object to evil, but it does mean that we should never take it upon ourselves to judge even those who are engaged in evil.  That sounds odd but we are not in the business of judging or condemning others, but of loving them.  We should be praying for healing for those who are led astray by Satan rather than judging them.

   St. Teresa of Calcutta never turned away anyone who needed her help because of who or what they were.  She saw Jesus in the face of all and treated them as she would treat our Lord.  A difficult standard to uphold for sure, but one we must strive to have in our life.