(Fourth Sunday of Lent (A): This homily
was given on March 26, 2017 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr.
Raymond Suriani. Read 1 Samuel 16: 1-13;
John 9:1-41.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Fourth Sunday of Lent 2017]
“Making judgments” versus “Judging
souls”.
That’s a distinction—a very important
distinction—that Dr. Edward Sri makes in his book, Who am I to Judge?
The problem is, not enough other people
in the world today are making this distinction.
Consequently, in 2017, if you dare to point out that somebody’s action
is wrong or sinful, in most instances you’ll immediately be accused of
“judging” that person! And if Christians
are the ones doing the accusing, they’ll usually follow up their accusation with
a quote from Jesus, who once said, “Judge not lest ye be judged.”
You might even be accused of hating the
person in question, simply because you’ve pointed out their sin and expressed
your disapproval of what they’ve done.
Dr. Sri would say that this kind of
verbal exchange happens so often these days because so many modern men and
women have confused “Making judgments” with “Judging souls.”
Judging souls is what we’re forbidden to
do. That’s what Jesus meant—that’s what
Jesus was getting at—when he said, “Judge not lest ye be judged.”
To judge another person’s soul is to
pretend to know where they stand in their relationship with God. It’s to imply that you know whether they are
in the state of grace or in the state of mortal sin—hence whether they would go
to heaven or hell if they died at this moment.
But we can never know those things as
human beings—because we’re not God! As
today’s first reading reminds us, only the Lord sees into the heart. Even if another person has done something that’s
objectively seriously sinful, we can’t know whether or not they’re fully
culpable for that sin before God. As Dr.
Sri says in his book, “A soul’s status before God is something between that
person and God alone. Various factors in
people’s lives may impair their free choices in such a way that limits their
culpability or moral guilt. As Pope Francis explains, ‘Each person’s situation
before God and their life in grace are mysteries which no one can fully know
from without.’”
Making judgments, on the other hand, is
a totally different story. Making
judgments is something we do all the time.
We do it about moral matters and pretty much everything else in
life! Whether you realize it or not, you’re
even making judgments right now, during this homily. You’re making a judgment as to whether it’s
good, or bad—or worse! You’re making
judgments as to whether or not you like it, whether or not it’s too long,
whether or not it’s boring, and whether or not you agree with what I’m saying.
And that’s normal. That’s human.
That’s to be expected.
At this point I should let you know that
if you do make the judgment that my homily this morning is lousy, too long,
incredibly boring—and that you agree with none of it—I promise you that I will
not interpret that to mean that you hate me.
And yet, as Dr. Sri points out in his
book, that’s the logic that many people today follow—people who confuse “making
judgments” with “judging souls”. They
think you hate them, if you make a judgment that a behavior they’ve engaged in
is wrong or sinful.
Don’t believe me?
Just tell your friends at work or in
school that homosexual actions are sinful, and see what kind of response you
get. In all likelihood, at least some of
them will accuse you of hating gay people and “judging them”. Now in reality you may not have a hateful
bone in your entire body. But that
doesn’t matter. You’ve made a judgment that something they’ve done is wrong, so you
hate them. Period.
That’s the logic.
A couple of years ago I was talking with
a college student about this very issue, and I was trying to help him
understand that you can vehemently disagree with someone’s behavior without
hating the person.
And I was getting nowhere.
Finally I said to him, “Let me ask you a
question. Do your parents love you?”
He said, “Of course they do.”
“You’re sure of that?”
“Yes, I’m sure.”
“Well," I said, "do your parents approve
of everything you do?”
He smiled a little, and said, “No.”
I said, “Then they must hate you!
You’re saying to me that Catholics hate gays
because they disapprove of
some of the things that gay people do.
Well, according to that logic, your parents must hate you, because they
sometimes disapprove of some of the things that you do.”
I think that finally opened his eyes to
the truth—at least to some extent.
I mention all this today because our
readings this morning present us with an example of someone making a judgment, as
well as an example of a group of people judging a soul.
In today’s first reading the prophet
Samuel makes a judgment. Unfortunately it ends up being the wrong
judgment, but it’s a judgment nonetheless.
One day God tells Samuel to go to the house of Jesse of Bethlehem in
order to anoint one of his sons as the next king of Israel.
So Samuel goes. When he gets there, he immediately meets
Eliab, one of Jesse’s eight sons. Now
we’re not told much about this particular boy in the text, but I think it’s
pretty safe to assume that he was, physically speaking, a very impressive
character—because when Samuel sees him the first thing he does is MAKE A
JUDGMENT! He makes the judgment that
this must be the one the Lord has chosen.
He was probably saying to himself, “This has to be the guy. He even looks like a king!”
Of course, as so often happens, the Lord
chooses the least likely candidate for the job—in this case, David.
We see the appearance; the
Lord sees into the heart.
Which brings us to today’s gospel story about
the healing of a man who had been blind from birth. Here we encounter an example of a group of
people judging a soul.
In the minds of first century Jews,
there was a direct connection between sin and suffering. Consequently, if you were suffering with an
infirmity like blindness (as this man was), it meant that either you—or someone
very close to you—must be guilty of committing a serious sin—or a number of
serious sins. Now it’s clear from the
story that even the Apostles believed this at the time, because when they saw
the blind man the first thing they asked Jesus was, “Whose sin caused this
man’s blindness? Was it his own sin, or
was it the sin of his parents?”
They made
a judgment, and, as was the case with Samuel, the judgment was wrong. Jesus said to them, “Neither he nor his
parents sinned …”
But the Pharisees took it one step
further—which was the real problem. They
not only made the erroneous judgment that this man was blind because he had
done something seriously sinful, they also—from all external indications—judged the man’s soul. They pretended to know where the guy stood in
his relationship with God—something which was impossible to know (as I indicated
earlier). This attitude of judgment came
through most clearly in the last thing the Pharisees said to the healed man
before they tossed him out of the synagogue.
They said to him, “You were born totally in sin, and are you trying to
teach us?” In other words, “You’re
obviously someone that God doesn’t love—since he caused you to be born blind. As far as we’re concerned, you’re on your way
to hell. So who are you to be giving us
lectures? We’re the chosen ones. We’re the enlightened ones. We’re the ones God loves!”
Making judgments/Judging someone’s soul
The first is okay to do—even when you’re
making a judgment about one of my homilies.
The second is never okay to do—even when
the person in question is considered to be a terrible sinner.
Two principles to remember, and, even
more importantly, two principles to try to live by.