My un-ruly stick

[Sixtus]

o in Heaven he may be forgiven as I have forgiven him; afterall, Jesus has given us power to forgive eachothers sins–as those sins you have forgiven they are forgiven and those sins you retain they are retained.

And since I have power to forgive everyone their trespasses then I am in no need of penance since forgiveness of sins is penance enough.

I just wanted to give you insight into how I measure with my un-ruly stick; since how I measure is what shall be measured to me; and how I judge so shall I be judged. And since I judge with

You are of course quoting Mt 7: 1-3.

I am inclined to agree with you. But there is a lot more to forviness than at first appears.

I forgive everyone who has ever trespassed against me. But in my human weakness, I have engaged in ‘office talk’ about so and so, who is a pain for trying to set me up for dismissal so he can have my job, after I was the one to get him his job when he was out of work and sleeping rough!

But by speaking ill, even if it is the truth, I am judging him and on that, I shall be held accountable.

So too, I have taken delight in winding someone up who eariler in my career caused me a lot of stress because they had the perverse power to do so. Now that I am above them, have to my shame taken delight in poking fun at them. That is against Christian charity for which I shall be judged.

You may not have done these things. But forgivness is how God forgives, He wipes the slate clean and never re-visits. If we are not as perfect then we are indeed guilty of judging