A Self-critical Conscious Choice

Monday, 12th week in Ordinary time

June 25, 2018: 2 Kgs 17: 5-8, 13-15, 18; Mt 7: 1-5

Judge not, and you shall not be judged, instructs Jesus today. Not to judge others does not mean justifying whatever he or she does. Between judging the other and justifying the other there is an attitude that Jesus deems Reign-worthy and it is a Self-critical Conscious Choice.

The first need is to be self critical. When I find something wrong in the other, charity requires that I first become critical of myself... it is seeing the log that is in your eye before offering to remove the splinter from your neighbour's. Once I am aware that I too possess the same, or a similar, or a bigger weakness, my attitude changes completely. I am in a  position to act with prudence and humility.

The second need is to set the home tidy first. "Do not do like they do" ... that was the instruction that the Lord had given the people when they come into contact with other people in their wanderings. St. Paul too has a similar warning for us, isn't it? Writing to the Romans, he tells us: do not be conformed to the world, instead be transformed in the Lord (cf. Rom 12).

In short, the Word invites us today to live our daily lives conscious of who we are, what we are called for and where we are bound to! Let us take our faith seriously and live on a daily basis by sound self-critical conscious choices... the Word shall be the lamp to that path!