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Sacred Scriptures/Liturgy- Commentary on Sunday's Readings |
Do not Judge
Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, OFMCap, Pontifical Household Preacher
www.zenit.org
1 Samuel 26:2,7-9;12-13;22-23; 1
Corinthians 15:45-49; Luke 6:27-38
This Sunday's Gospel contains a type of moral code that should
characterize the life of a disciple of Christ. The whole of it is
summarized in the so-called golden rule of moral action: "Do to
others as you would like them to do to you."
This is a rule that, if put into practice, would be enough to change
the face of the families and the society in which we live. The Old
Testament knew it in a negative form: "Do not do to others what you
do not want them to do to you" (Tobias 4:15); Jesus proposes it in a
positive form: "Do to others as you would like them to do to you,"
which is much more demanding.
But the Gospel passage also raises some questions. "To him who
strikes you on the cheek, give him the other cheek; to him who takes
away your cloak, give him your shirt as well. Give to whoever asks.
Of him who takes your goods, do not ask for them back."
Does Jesus therefore command his disciples to not oppose evil, to
let the violent do as they will? How can this be reconciled with the
obligation to combat despotism and crime, to energetically denounce
them, even when to do so is dangerous? Or how can it be reconciled
with the idea of "zero tolerance" in the face of the increase in
petty crime?
Not only does the Gospel not condemn this demand for law and order,
it in fact reinforces it. There are situations in which charity does
not oblige us to turn the other cheek, but to go directly to the
police and report the misdeed.
The golden rule that is valid in all cases, we have heard, is to do
to others as we would have them do to us. If you are, for example,
the victim of theft, of a mugging, of blackmail, if someone
rear-ends your car and demolishes it, you would certainly be happy
if someone who witnessed the incident were ready to testify on your
behalf.
The Gospel tells you that this is what you must do. You cannot let
yourself off the hook with easy excuses: "I didn't see anything, I
don't know anything." Fear and refusal to be a "nark" or "rat" is
what allows crime to prosper.
But let us look at some other words from Sunday's Gospel which are
in a sense even more dangerous: "Do not judge and you will not be
judged; do not condemn and you will not be condemned." So, should we
leave the way open for wrongdoing with impunity? And what are we to
think of magistrates who are full-time, professional judges? Are
they condemned by the Gospel from the very beginning?
The Gospel is not as naive and unrealistic as it might at first
seem. It does not so much charge us to remove judgment from our
lives as it does to remove the poison from our judgment! That is,
that part of our judgment which is resentment, rejection and
revenge, which often is mixed in with the objective evaluation of
the deed. Jesus' command to "not judge and you will not be judged"
is immediately followed, as we have seen, by the command: "Do not
condemn and you will not be condemned" (Luke 6:37).
The second phrase explains the meaning of the first one.
The word of God prohibits ruthless judgments, judgments that are
merciless. It criticizes those who condemn the sinner together with
the sin.
Today civil society rightly, and almost universally, rejects the
death penalty. In capital punishment, the aspect of revenge on the
part of society and the annihilation of the guilty party prevails
over the notions of self-defense and of discouraging crime, both of
which could be just as efficaciously served with other sorts of
punishment.
Among other things, sometimes it is the case that the person who is
executed is completely different from the one who committed the
crime. This is due to the fact that sometimes the one convicted of
the crime has repented and radically changed.
This page is the work of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and
Mary
