Our Lenten journey through the Sermon on the Mount continues.
Jesus said, “Do not judge others.”Off course we do judge others, even when we claim we don’t. So, where does that leave us? We entered the season of Lent with the intention to engage in self-examination and I think that is key to the study of judgment. We need to be cautious about judging others without first questioning and challenging our own assumptions and examining verifiable evidence. We need to know something of the other’s story and to view it as objectively as possible. The log in our own eye is our assumptions, biases, and failure to acknowledge our own weaknesses. The splinter in the other’s eye is what our judgments are based on. To paraphrase the Golden Rule: Do not judge others as you do not want to be judged.
Do not dishonor sacred treasures. What are they? They’re not the way we’ve always done things. They are, for us, Scripture, Tradition, and Reason. Hear, O people of God, the Lord your God, the Lord is One; you shall have no other gods before you. You shall love the Lord your God with all you have. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus is the Word of God made flesh who lived and died as one of us. He rose again, revealed in the fullness of his divinity, granting to us life beyond death. These, at least, are among our sacred treasures. They do not need to be defended, but they do need to be treated with holy respect at all times.
Does all this seem too hard, too difficult, too unrelated to the demands of daily life? In many ways, it is. The reality of demands on daily life leaves little room for holy treasures. Few of us give much attention to them, even those whose lives are dedicated to daily prayer, scripture study, and sacramental celebrations. God knows whereof we are made; that’s why Jesus said, “Seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened, ask and you will receive.” What will we find? What will be opened to us? What will we receive?
We will find what is needed to live more fully into the way of sacred treasures. A door leading to the way will be opened to us. It’s likely to be a door we overlooked, even one we couldn’t have imagined was there for us, but it will be there. What we will receive is a greater awareness of God’s Holy Spirit with us and for us in the events of daily life, guiding us back to the right path whenever we go astray.
Beware of trying too hard to be holy and righteous enough to please God. It can lead to despair or self-satisfied priggishness. Don’t try to live into God’s life. Let God live into your life. The Holy Spirit will be there for you and with you. Trust Christ to bring you to himself. As it is said in AA, “Let go and let God.”
What about the narrow doorway, and the wide one that leads to hell? The word translated as hell was the ever-burning city dump just outside Jerusalem. The wide doorway leads to the dump, to be tossed aside as useless and forgotten. The narrow door leads to life experienced in this life only in part but in the fullness of all we are created to be on the other side of death. The wide doorway is a marketer’s dream. Through it are displayed all the things of the world to be desired: goods, services, adventures, experiences, status, fame, riches—everything laid out to delight the eyes and entice the soul. Through the narrow door can be seen the sacred treasures that call us to live and work as agents of the kingdom of God here and now, in the sure and certain knowledge that we are already walking into our eternal life with God. We may enjoy, yet not own, many of the things that are seen on the other side of the wide door. But those things can never be allowed to own, possess our souls or define who we are.