Spiritual Life: Who are you to pass judgment on others?

That we are always so fast to judge others cannot be gainsaid. May be you have been a victim of some harsh judgment from others. Maybe you have been the architect of passing some judgment on others. In the Sermon on the Mount of Olives, Jesus preached that people should not judge others. In addition, in His handling of the woman caught in adultery, He said, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” So, why are people always passing judgment on others? Both the Bible and the Quran are quite crystal clear on this: we shouldn’t pass judgment on others. The Bible advises Christians in Matthew 7:5 that we should first seek to take out the log from our own eyes before rushing to take speck out another person’s eye. According to Luke 6:37: “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven.” There are much more bible verses that proclaim a similar theme. “The Quran cites that it’s an error for an individual to accuse someone else of something wrong except with tangible proof and full knowledge. It’s wrong to ground a judgment against a person on hearsay, suspicion or assumption,” says Hassan Suleiman, a Muslim from Nyamirambo. Allah says: “O you who believe! If a wicked person comes to you with any news, ascertain the truth, lest you harm people unwittingly and afterwards become full of repentance for what you have done.” [Sûrah al-Hujurât: 5]. Despite the Scriptures telling us loud and clear that we shouldn’t rush to be judgmental when it comes to a person’s personal or moral behavior, most of us are normally doing the contrary. When, for example, a person of high esteem falls from grace to grass, even without any concrete evidence to support, we will look at the reasons why such a fate had to befall him or her. Any shred of evidence or our fertile imagination will guide us in making our own judgment without digging deep why such a thing had to happen. We were all created unique. People are not similar. According to Pascal Ndahiro of Remera Catholic Church, Jesus clearly told us what to do and those making general, non-personal statements about what’s right or wrong are missing the mark. “When it comes to making personal opinion about another person, we should always know that we too are not perfect in one way or the other. It’s wrong to make judgment basing on a person’s way of life, so long as that life doesn’t interfere with another person. All of us should know that we cannot be perfect in every sphere of life,” says Ndahiro. Citing from the book of John 7: 24 that says: “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment,” Ndahiro says that many Christians have fallen in this trap of judging others without deeply understanding what a person might be going through. He continues: “Most people refuse to befriend others because they feel that those they are unjustly judging have been personally measured and found wanting. Rich people don’t want to befriend poor people. Some self-righteous Christians don’t want to consort with the so-called non-Christians. We are living in a world where we don’t want to associate with others because we feel they don’t belong to our league. And this is wrong,” he says. Jesus himself led by example. He associated and even dined with the so-called sinners like tax collectors. Therefore, it’s only our God who is able to make judgment, since as it’s normally said, those who tell others to keep to the straight and the narrow should themselves always be beyond reproach. **************************** Elderly persons not a mere cost – Vatican A purely economic and functional approach toward elderly persons could create a culture where the weakest and vulnerable people such as the unborn, the poorest, the sick, elderly and seriously handicapped “are in danger of being thrown away from a system that must be efficient at all costs and thus impoverish society of their wisdom, experience, and enriching presence,” the Vatican has said. Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Holy See representative to the United Nations told the 27th Session of the Human Rights Council, which was discussed a report of the Independent Expert on the “promotion and protection of human rights of older persons,” noted the growing number of elderly in the world, and lamented the significance of this is “calculated only on the basis of projected economic impact.” According to the report, the number of elderly persons is fast increasing, and is foreseen to double within the next decade, tripling by 2050 to two billion older persons. As a result, some economists say the unprecedented pace of aging will have a significant negative effect on economic growth over the next two decades across all regions. But Archbishop Silvano said that such limited understanding of the issue “constitutes a serious threat to the full enjoyment of rights by older people.” He said: “Regrettably, today’s efficient society tends to marginalize our vulnerable brothers and sisters, including older persons, as if they were only a “weight” and a “problem” for society. To the contrary, the increasing number of older people, especially those who remain in good health, also means that they can make their contributions to society for longer periods of time. However, in order to assure that such positive developments will take place, we need to strategize and implement new approaches to structuring society in general, the world of work, health care infrastructure and delivery, the development of technology, intellectual property rights, social protection systems, and intergenerational social relationships.” He called for the implementation of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing that imposed on States the responsibility to take measures to address ageing in order to achieve a society for all ages” and to mainstream “ageing into national and global development agendas. “Recall of this strategy is indeed timely during this period when the international community focuses its energy and attention on developing a Post-2015 Agenda. We feel compelled to raise the question, however, of how well this plan has been achieved to date, especially when we read of increasing numbers of ageing persons being constrained to leave their traditional and familiar homes in high-income countries to seek haven in developing regions of the world where the cost of long-term care is much less expensive. Surely, when we speak of preserving the enjoyment of all human rights, it is essential to respect and preserve, as far as possible the bonds of older persons with loved ones and with a familiar environment.” – Vatican Radio

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Spiritual Life: Who are you to pass judgment on others?