To judge or not to judge

  • Thread starter Thread starter 777
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
7

777

Guest
If we’re forbidden to judge people, then how come we got judges in the courts and such? Just a thought.
 
40.png
777:
If we’re forbidden to judge people, then how come we got judges in the courts and such? Just a thought.
Click to expand...
Courts settle disputes and enforce order (or at least they’re supposed to). We’re forbidden to judge the state of someone’s soul.
 
There is a distinction between judging an action and judging a person. Judges working for the State do the former. Only God may do the latter.
 
Judges are to legal justice as God is to spiritual justice. The Pope is to Catholicism what the U.S. President is to U.S. Government. Politics and democracy are in the secular realm but not tenets of our Catholic faith (or the Papacy).
 
Dr. Colossus:
There is a distinction between judging an action and judging a person. Judges working for the State do the former. Only God may do the latter.
Click to expand...
We can also judge actions in accordance with our faith. This is the essence of the old saying, “Hate the sin but love the sinner.” We judge the action according to our faith. We cannot, however, say that an individual is definitely going to Heaven or Hell because we cannot make that judgement.
 
Remember :Christ before Pilate. “Don you not you realise I have power either to free you or to crucify you”? To which Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.”

I am always struck that Jesus did not say “you have no power over life and death, that capital punishment is wrong,” just that Pilate’s authority came from above.
Similarly, Jesus never told soldiers they were wrong to be soldiers, in fact he healed the daughter of the soldier.

I’m not sure what point, if any, I am trying to make, just that the Gospels are full of wonderful things to consider.

“People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering.” - Saint Augustine
 
What a coincidence that I was reading and reflecting about this just last evening, so I thought I would share with you the wisdom from the pen of St. Therese of Lisieux.
It is possible that what I think of as a fault was in reality a praiseworthy act — it depends on the intention. I once had experience of it in a small way; the moral being that you shouldn’t pass judgment on other people.

It was during recreation; the prioress had rung twice, and that meant the big door had to be opened to let the workmen bring in some trees for the crib. You weren’t there, dear Mother, so the recreation wasn’t much fun, and I thought it would suit me quite well if I were sent out to lend an extra hand. Sure enough, Mother sub-Prioress called on me and the sister who was next to me; one of us was to go.

So I started at once to fold up the needle-work I was doing, but rather slowly
Click to expand...
, so as to let the other sister finish first. I thought she might like the chance of lending a hand outside. The sister who was in charge of things stood there, smiling as she looked at us, and when she saw me get up last, she said, “I thought as much, slowcoach! No extra jewel for your crown that time!” And of course, all the community must have thought I was being selfish.

I can’t tell you what a lot of good this tiny little incident did me in making me kinder about other people’s faults! When people speak well of me, I say to myself: “If they mark it down as a fault in me when I try to do a bit of good; what about these good qualities they find in me? One can also mistake for virtue what is nothing but imperfection.” Then I say with St. Paul: “To me it is a very small thing to be judged by you, but neither do I judge myself. He that judges me is THE LORD.”
 
40.png
Joysong:
What a coincidence that I was reading and reflecting about this just last evening, so I thought I would share with you the wisdom from the pen of St. Therese of Lisieux.
Click to expand...
Dear Joysong

A beautiful post, thank you 🙂

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa
 
the primary reason for a judge is “Fairness”… without passion or predjudice they arbitrate and settle differences between man and his neighbor and man and his community.
 
40.png
LoneRanger:
the primary reason for a judge is “Fairness”… without passion or predjudice they arbitrate and settle differences between man and his neighbor and man and his community.
Click to expand...
Don’t forget woman too. They’re human. But what if someone a judge jugdes don’t live next door to him/her? Then that person can’t qualify as a neighbor. Go figure.:confused:
 
40.png
theMutant:
We can also judge actions in accordance with our faith. This is the essence of the old saying, “Hate the sin but love the sinner.” We judge the action according to our faith. We cannot, however, say that an individual is definitely going to Heaven or Hell because we cannot make that judgement.
Click to expand...
Even if the sinner were Saddam, Osama, Pol Pot, Lenin, Stalin, Ted Bundy and/or Hitler? After all the stuff they did? Just curiousity.
 
The subject was judging. To me people do judge themselves to be free of sin are guilty of pride.

We all do that to some extent. I think we are allowed to judge. The little verse says how can you judge the splinter in my eye when you have a lumber in yous.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top