THROUGH UNTRUE
Fr. Rolando V. dela Rosa, O.P.
Everyday we make judgments about ourselves, things, situations, and people. Our judgment may be right or wrong, moral or immoral, intelligent or stupid, necessary or trivial, rash or prudent. But judging is a necessary part of life.
However, many people are scandalized when they hear someone passing judgment on a person or his behavior. They would say: “Bawal ang judgmental. You have no right to judge.” They would even quote from the Bible and declare: "Judge not that you may not be judged" (Matthew 7:1).
In truth, that gospel passage does not carry a blanket prohibition on judging. We have to read it in its proper context. It goes: "Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the kind of judgment you judge, you will be judged; and the measure you measure will be measured to you. And why do you see the chip in the eye of your brother, but do not consider the beam in your own eye?" (Matthew 7:1-3).
The command of Jesus only asks us to beware, lest in our haste to judge others, we might measure others in terms of our self-defined standards of goodness and deprive them of the chance to prove us wrong.
The dictionary defines the word "judge" as "one who has sufficient knowledge to decide on the merits of a case." This implies that sufficient knowledge of the truth is a prerequisite for judging. If our judgment is based on truth, like when we call someone who continually spreads lies a liar, we are not being judgmental. We are simply making a statement of fact. We become judgmental when we rashly judge others, even if we barely know them.
Today's gospel features John the Baptist who is not afraid to publicly judge those who sin without remorse. He calls them "a brood of vipers" (Matthew 3:7). Jesus also reserves his most degrading judgment for the Pharisees and lawyers: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which are beautiful outside but are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness" (Matthew 23:27).
Are they judgmental? No. The judgments of Jesus and John the Baptist, obviously painful to their listeners, are solidly founded on truth and are not meant to insult or downgrade them. When said honestly and with the best of intentions, words that hurt are also words that heal.
Jesus and John the Baptist give their listeners sufficient information so the latter can judge for themselves if they would accept the salvation offered to them. The knowledge morally obliges their listeners to act on what they hear. The Apostle Paul echoes John the Baptist when he writes: "I speak in such a way that others could wisely judge what I say" (1Corinthians 10:15).
These days, many people withhold judgment regarding the evil that they see. They would say: "Who am I to judge?" They mistake tolerance for kindness. Tolerance is cruel if it makes us permissive of a person's deviant behavior, leading him to believe that what he does is "normal." The Bible has strong words for those whose tolerance is misplaced: “If you do not correct a person who persists in his wrongdoing, that person will die for his guilt; but I will hold you responsible for his death” (Ezekiel 3:18).
Many parents also refuse to discipline and correct their children when the latter misbehave. A timely parental correction is indispensable because, once a child becomes an adult, it is almost impossible for him to unlearn what he has learned, unknow the bad things that he has known, and undo the evil he has done.
Imagine a world where everyone just lets everyone do his thing because nobody wants to judge or be judged. As the philosopher Thomas Hobbes writes, it would be "a world where life is nasty, brutish, and short."