Be merciful. Stop judging. Stop
condemning. Forgive. These are 4 of the commands Jesus gives us in
today’s Gospel. Four short
commands. But we know that none of them
are easy, are they? It is easy to judge someone and condemn someone, isn’t it? We do so from what we see on the surface
sometimes, but then we often don’t know the rest of the story. We often think of our own wants and own needs and our own reality. We want everyone else to obey the rules, but they we want forgiveness and mercy
for ourselves. It is hard putting ourselves in the other person’s shoes, to really be merciful and compassionate?
I read an article about Mother Teresa in the Washington Post newspaper
this past week. It reported how the
leader of the Hindu nationalist group in India publically criticized her about
her charitable work, saying that her ulterior motive was to try to bring about
a religious conversion in those she was serving. These remarks caused quite a animated
discussion in the Indian media. Mother Teresa has her critics, even
though so many in the world admire her and her work throughout the world. The article in the Washington Post ended by saying that India, as a primarily
Hindu country, has a lot of religious tension present in it, with many
Christian coverts fearing violence against them for their new-found faith, and
some Muslims feeling pressured to convert to Hinduism. It is easy to judge someone and condemn someone, isn’t it? And it seems that in our society we love to knock
someone of their pedestal.
How are we living up to the values that Jesus addresses today? And are our Lenten disciplines helping us
live up to those values?
No comments:
Post a Comment