Militant invited me to this party.
I have read your posts and I noticed something that needs attention and that’s the words “judge” and “judgment”. As a professor of Ascetical and Mystical Theology (Ret) I can tell you that these words are not the same as the words that we use today. The average person, Christian or non-Christian, does not make a distinction between “judging” and “discriminating”. We have blended the two together to the point that we make silly statements about “the need to judge” and then we offer examples of the judge in a court in our defense.
What the judge in a courtroom does is what theology calls “discrimination”. He or she sorts through the facts and discriminates between actions that are legal and illegal. He does not really judge. Observe two things. A judge makes no moral assessment. He’s not looking at the rightness or wrongness of a action. He’s look at law and facts. He’s separating those actions that are within the law from those that are outside of the law and those that are in violation of the law. We all know that laws can be immoral. However, the judge is not looking at rightness of the law. The law is not on trial. What is on trial is compliance with the law. Avoid this example in a discussion of “judgment” or “judging”.
Judgment and judging in the context of faith have to use the definitions assigned to them by Ascetical Theology, not social institutions or even Webster. Institutions and Webster define terms according to popular usage or secular etymology. Ascetical theology does not rely on popular usage and its etymology is usually very ancient and grounded in Revelation. Even Webster didn’t know it.
When the scriptures and moral theology tell us not to judge, they are grounded in ascetical theology. What is asceticism? I define it this way for my theology students.
Asceticism is the choice of the will to follow the voice of the Spirit that only the heart can hear.
When we choose to follow the voice of the Spirit, we may have to make choices contrary to our instincts, our personality, our cultural values, and even our worldview. Let’s carefully examine what this voice has to say. St. John and St. Paul lay it out for us. Moreover, St. Francis of Assisi has gone down in history as being the perfect student of Paul and John. He is a good role model for us.
If we look at Francis, we see a man who took Paul’s words to heart, “to conform to Christ Crucified, so that I may no longer live, but he lives through me,” (Francis of Assisi). In addition, we also see John’s dying words played out in Francis. On his deathbed, the Apostle John summarized his writings for his disciples, “Remain in his love.”
This is why Francis would later say, “It is in forgiving that we are forgiven,” (Francis of Assisi). Forgiveness can only come through the cross and only the man who lives in His love is able to forgive. Do you see how Francis pulls Paul and John together in his life? Why does he do this?
Let’s go back to the definition of asceticism. The Spirit calls us. He calls us to do what? He calls us to live in Him. This is what we call the Spiritual Life. We are called to live in the Spirit. In order to live in the Spirit we have to choose to conform to Christ Crucified and we have to remain in his love one moment at a time.
The cross is about forgiveness. On the cross, Christ faces man’s darkest night. We all want to think of many sins that can cast a dark shadow upon our souls. That’s OK, because there are many. However, our darkest night of all is when we comes face to face with sins committed against us (directly or indirectly). At that moment, we want to strike out and punish. We want to level the playing field. We want to make it go away. We want to hate without restraint. We want to do everything that precludes the presence of God who is light. We are willing to live in darkness, if it will make the other feel as wounded as we feel. THAT is judgment,
to decide that the other deserves the darkness that we are experiencing.
To live in the Spirit is to face the night and say,
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” (Lk 23:34) Only when we can say this and mean it, can we say like Jesus,** “It is finished,” (Jn 19:30). **Thus, “evening came and morning followed, the first day” (Gn 1:5) That’s why Christ rises on the first day. Easter is the triumph of forgiveness over judgment (1Pet 2:23).
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
