“If we must judge, let us first use the mirror on our own wall for practice.”

Those things that one cannot improve in himself or in others, he ought to endure patiently, until God arranges things otherwise. Nevertheless when you have such impediments, you ought to pray that God would help you, and that you may bear them kindly. Endeavour to be patient in bearing with the defects of others, whatever they are; for you also have many failings which must be borne by others. If you cannot make yourself be as you would like to be, how can you expect to have another person be to your liking in every way? We desire to have others perfect, and yet we do not correct our own faults. We would allow others to be severely corrected, and will not be corrected ourselves. We will have others kept under by strict laws, but in no case do we want to be restrained. And so it appears that we seldom weigh our neighbour in the same balance with ourselves. - Thomas a Kempis

Gospel Text: (LK 11:42-46)
The Lord said:
“Woe to you Pharisees!
You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb,
but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God.
These you should have done, without overlooking the others.
Woe to you Pharisees!
You love the seat of honor in synagogues
and greetings in marketplaces.
Woe to you!
You are like unseen graves over which people unknowingly walk.”

Then one of the scholars of the law said to him in reply,
“Teacher, by saying this you are insulting us too.”
And he said, “Woe also to you scholars of the law!
You impose on people burdens hard to carry,
but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them.”

Charity ain't easy. Loving souls with the Heart of Christ demands our all. It demands that we not get hung up on what is not important but that we never forget to try to bring every last person around us to be with God eternally.

Look at Our Lady. She was given every grace, merit, blessing, and honor by God, but one thing she was never given - she wasn't ever appointed anyone's judge. She is “Advocata Nostra”, Our Advocate. She is the one who excuses rather than accuses. The devil is the accuser. He is the rash judge. Those who step into the shoes of trying to condemn as many as possible, end up condemning themselves along with the evil one.

But wait, you say? Does justice, does holiness not demand us to be exact and correct in our estimation of things? Are we to turn a blind eye to the horrible and gross moral indifference of our times? By saying, "Do not judge," aren't we also saying that we will contribute to the moral indifference by not resisting evil and pointing it out when others seem to apathetically let it suffocate the rightly developed sense of good and evil?

No. Actually, being forgiving, excusing our brother's fault, does not numb our sense of sin, it sharpens it.

By being aware of evil around us, especially the mystery of sin working in my brothers and sisters, we become more capable not of pushing them back down into it, but trying to work in intimate union with the Hearts of Jesus and Mary in pulling as many souls out of the muck as we can. Being acutely aware of my brother's sin doesn't mean that we must condemn him, but makes us all the more alive to the need to help rid him of evil.

When a parent sees a child full of mud, love demands the parent to clean their little one. A little soul tarnished in its original pristine beauty, should arouse in the hearts of disciples, the desire to work with the Eternal Father, to cleanse them and free them so that they may stand shameless before His glorious Face, and thus find salvation.

May the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, the forgiving, excusing Hearts, form disciples to be the lifeboats of salvation in the midst of an ocean of iniquity of our time, to pull people out of the muck rather than push them down.