Judging Others 

   “Do not judge, so that you in turn may not be judged.” (Matt 7: 1) 

   I once had a friend whom most considered an unreliable drunk.  When on a binge he would miss work for days on end.  Until I got to know him better I wondered how he could keep his job under such circumstances.

   What I came to know and what most never knew of my friend was that he had spent over three years as a prisoner of war in North Korea.  He was barely fed and regularly mistreated and abused.  He was one of many American POWs on the so-called Tiger Death March, a nine day ordeal during which almost one hundred Americans died.

   The lesson to be learned here is that we rarely know what brought others to be what we consider drunks, or addicts of various kinds.  Those whose memories haunt them every day and, at times, overwhelm them.

   St. Theresa of Calcutta once said, “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”  Over and over in scripture we are told that only God is the judge, and that He has given all judgement over to the Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  We, therefore, have no right to judge anyone, only to love them as God’s children.

   We will not be judged by what great works we may have done but by how we loved others, even those we might consider the dregs of society.  We need to keep in mind the adage “There but for the grace of God, go I.”

   “Why do you take note of the splinter in your brother’s eye but do not notice the wooden plank in your own eye?” (Matt 7: 3).  We all have things in our lives that others could use to judge us; things we wish we could change but cannot.  We would hope that others would consider what led us to where we are and refrain from judging us.  Should we do less for others?