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23 Nov 2014 - Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Cycle A

We tend to judge ourselves and others using the criteria of comparison, or objective laws. The activity of judging is itself a road best not taken, because God alone has the right to judge. If we want to know the criteria by which we will be judged, the corporal works of mercy hold the key. A broad understanding of the works of mercy will unite us to the compassion of God.

judgment corporal works of mercy

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28 Sep 2014 - Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

DIRECT YOUR ATTENTION for a moment to the cross of Christ. What's fair about that? An innocent man dies at the hands of the guilty. The friend of sinners is abandoned by his closest companions. A teacher, healer, and wonder worker is beaten, wounded, and left to die after being denounced by the very people he served and saved. A grotesque conspiracy between invested religious leaders and indifferent occupying forces leads to the death of the hope of the world. There is nothing right or fair or even comprehensible about any of this. The gospel isn't selling an even-steven religion. Jesus never pretended to be like blindfolded Lady Justice, balancing scales in blissful ignorance of the parties involved. Jesus is never ignorant of the smallest sparrow, or the woman in the crowd tugging at his cloak, the cry of lepers, the grief of mothers and fathers for their sick and dying children. Jesus is Lord of the details. Jesus knows that Nathaniel hung out under the fig tree before they met. He knows that the Samaritan woman at the well has not been lucky in love. He knows who his betrayer is before anyone else around him realizes he's been betrayed. Always conscious of the cosmic perspective, Jesus never loses sight of the person, the story, the simple need of a single heart. There is no warehouse of salvation that matches "just deserts" to an invoice of "good deeds" and sends the results to the fulfillment department for shipping and handling. In the realm of divine justice, mercy always has its eye on the ever-changing human heart. One minute it's hard and unrelenting, the next, soft and yielding. God created us to know the same freedom "on earth as it is in heaven." That means we can always change our minds and our directions. That means judgment is withheld until the clock runs down and time is finally up. So a man has two sons. One always says the right and pleasing thing to his father, and the other is a real piece of work! But neither child is what he seems, as it turns out. In the first exchange, one appears to be the soul of obedience and the other headed for reform school. But in the end, the opposite is true. The first son's obedience turned out to be a ploy for favor, and the second son's arrogance a mask over genuine regret. Which version of these sons is real: the early model or the late? The Lord of details knows that we are not all we seem to be, and that our story is not yet written. That's why God waits for us, withholding judgment and extending mercy to the final hour. Related scripture links Hypocrisy abhorred: Matt. 3:7-10; 7:21; 12:38-42; 15:7-8; 23:3-7 Preference for latecomers: Matt. 2:1-12; 8:5-13; 9:9-13; 15:21-28 Now: Matt. 1:18; 3:10, 15; 11:12; 14:3; 15:32; 18:31; 19:16; 22:25, 28; 23:32; 24:21; 25:28; 26:6, 29, 64 65, 69; 27:11, 15, 42-43 Paul’s big now: 2 Cor. 6:2 Catechism links Unlikely kingdom outcomes: CCC 535; 544-546 The mind of Christ: CCC 461; 520-521; 1693-1698; 2842

Authors Alice Camille

judgment fairness

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14 Sep 2014 - Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Cycle A

Like last week the readings present a stark choice between faith and sin, life and death. Yet also like last week there is a note of hope. Christ’s “downward” movement into the world is necessary so that in dying for sin he is lifted up and lifts up. Judgment and punishment come from above but so does life. Whether we select to remain below or ascend is up to us. Jesus saves but only we can condemn ourselves. Do we opt for faith in the Lord and obedience to his teachings? God’s invitation to redemption is always there even if we repeatedly turn it down: “He, being merciful, forgave their sin . . . often he turned back his anger and let none of his wrath be roused.”

Authors Joel Schorn

judgment redemption

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20 Jul 2014 - Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

The familiar symbol for justice is a blindfolded woman. She balances a scale in one hand and displays a sword in the other. This personification of justice can be traced all the way back to ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman goddesses. The blindfold denotes the impartiality of Lady Justice. She doesn't "see" the parties in a case and therefore doesn't distinguish between them. The scale contains the merits of the case, which will sooner or later dip to the side that presents the weightiest evidence. The sword represents Reason, which slices through the fog of unclarity and misinformation; the sword also symbolizes the power of Justice, which punishes the wrongdoer with swift retribution. For better or for worse, since the time of ancient goddesses, that is how many think of justice. It's an interestingly mathematical proposition, all quid pro quo and even-steven. The personalities don't matter, just the particulars of the case. Through the balancing act of facts and witnesses, people arrive at a conclusion and then the sword falls against the guilty. Fade to black. Justice is served. Of course you also know it's not that simple. Sometimes, despite the weight of the evidence and the preponderance of witnesses, justice is clearly not served. The guilty party may get off on a technicality that shouldn't matter but, in the cold corridors of logic, becomes the deciding factor. Or maybe the guilty party is determined rightly, but because of extenuating circumstances--mental incompetence or prior abuse--such guilt might seem limited or even expunged. In a blind-justice universe, small factors may loom as immutable ones because of the ruthlessly rational calculus of law. So even when the scales are weighted and the sword falls, genuine justice is far from served. The Book of Wisdom declares that divine justice is superior to human justice because God adds mercy and clemency into the mix. Justice becomes no longer a matter of adding and subtracting and arriving at a final sum: innocent or guilty. Instead divine justice takes the full measure of the human person, and not only the deed in question, before rendering its verdict. Outcomes may be surprising. God is the one who searches hearts, Saint Paul says, which is why God allows the weeds to grow up along with the wheat before rendering judgment on the world altogether. Divine justice wears no blindfold. It does not accept collateral damage in the field as the price of doing business. Ends never justify means. When the eyes of justice are wide open and all-encompassing, everything counts and everything matters. Every staff of wheat is potential flour for bread. As such it must be given every opportunity to grow into wholeness and reach its fullness. God's lenient mercy buys you time to outgrow the weeds and produce your harvest. Related scripture links Not of this world: John 18:36 Justice and mercy: Pss. 25:6-7; 51:3-19; 130:1-8; 143:1-12; Isa. 1:18; Luke 1:76-79; Col. 1:13-14 With God all things are possible: Gen. 18:14; Job 42:2; Matt. 19:26; Mark 10:27; Luke 1:37 Catechism links Justice: CCC 376; 1805; 1807 Heaven: CCC 325-326; 1023-1029 Kindness: CCC 736; 827; 1832 Mercy: CCC 1829; 2447

Authors Alice Camille

Justice Mercy judgment

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20 Jul 2014 - Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Are you the judge? Do you want to cast out the unworthy to wail in misery? God judges in kindness. God allows the weeds to grow until harvesting. God gives the world an abundance of growth. God makes the call. When God searches your heart, will there be an abundance of kindness?

Mercy judgment

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02 Mar 2014 - Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Who is to judge? The remarkable Christian teaching not to judge comes from the reality that only God can judge. Let’s keep our consciences clear, Saint Paul said: I do not judge you nor should you judge me; “the one who judges me is the Lord.” From this power of God comes another challenge, all the readings say this week, besides not to judge: trust in God. Not in money or material goods but in God’s care alone. This call to trust makes a further claim on disciples. Do you have faith? Jesus asks. Then “seek first the kingdom of God.” Be trustworthy “stewards of the mysteries of God.”

Authors Joel Schorn

judgment

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30 Mar 2014 - Fourth Sunday of Lent, Cycle A

The other morning there was bedlam in the neighborhood at 5 a.m. Some early-riser decided it was a great time to catch up on some preliminary yard-work for the spring, so he revved up some powered machines and tackled the job. A nice idea, but of course the rest of us were still sleeping. So now our exuberant neighbor is on the outs with the whole block. It's always trouble when one person awakes and the rest of society is fast asleep. In a similar way it's a problem when one person sees and everyone else is still stumbling around with blinders on. Both of these descriptions could be working definitions for prophecy. Revelations may be wonderful and privileged things but they often guarantee your loneliness. There are probably a thousand ways you fail to see what's right in front of you every day. For example, the old woman in the third pew on the right-hand side of the church disappeared one Sunday morning. She had always been there; one week she wasn't, and she didn't return. The gossip mills were in full swing about her. Had she left the church or only the parish? Had she broken a leg? Had she died? Six months later, the mystery was solved: She had simply started going to the vigil Mass on Saturday. No one had considered such a simple interpretation for her absence from her predictable spot. A second example. One week I noticed an eight-year-old wearing heart-shaped sunglasses during Mass a few pews away from mine. She was a beautiful child, not to mention really stylin' with her designer jeans, fashionable boots, and sparkly T-shirt. Everything about this kid shouted out Mall Princess. The shades topped off her celebrity look. Of course there are plenty of reasons a kid would wear sunglasses during Mass. Maybe she was bored out of her mind or just didn't care. Perhaps she wanted to hide, or she was just trying to get under the skin of her devout mother. Then came communion time. The girl reached under her kneeler, produced a white stick, and tap-tap-tapped her way to the front of the church. The one other reason someone might wear sunglasses in church had not crossed my mind. God sees what's in the human heart while you cast your judgments and criticisms on everyone around you. You see the fancy sunglasses while God sees the white stick under the kneeler. There is often one simple reason why this person you do not like or understand is behaving in this impossible way; you can usually produce five good reasons when you step out of line or behave badly. If you want to begin to see, the first step may be admitting, in all humility, that your vision isn't flawless. Related scripture links Blindness as metaphor: Gen. 27:1-40; 1 Sam. 3:1-18; Isa. 29:9-18; 56:9-12; Acts 9:1-19; Rom. 2:19; 2 Cor. 4:3-4; 2 Pet. 1:9; 1 John 2:11; Rev. 3:17-19 Curing blindness part of the mission: Matt. 9:27-31; 20:29-34; Mark 10:46-52; Luke 7:22 Light in John: 1:6-9; 3:19-21; 8:12; 12:35-36, 39-40, 46 Catechism links Children of sight and light: CCC 588; 1216; 1691-1698

Authors Alice Camille

Humility judgment

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29 Dec 2013 - Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Cycle A

One thing we hear in this week’s readings—and last week as well—is a quiet reminder of Jesus’ “Great Commandment”: Love your neighbor as yourself, as well as another one of his most important messages: Forgive others; judge not. Last Sunday Saint Joseph refused to take the easy, judgmental way out and instead show mercy to his pregnant wife-to-be, Mary. Today you are reminded that God will remember kindness to others, like an ailing father, and therefore show kindness to you. Forgive one another, the epistle says, because God has already forgiven you.

judgment great commandment forgive

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17 Nov 2013 - Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

"Don’t get burned!” could be a theme of this weekend’s readings. Don’t get burned, first of all, in God’s judgment, like evildoers and the proud! Don’t also get burned by false prophets. The “lights” you should be looking for—the “business” you should be “minding,” in the words of 2 Thessalonians— are not “awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky” but the “sun of justice with its healing rays,” which shines on those who respect and have reverence for the name of God.

Authors Joel Schorn

judgment false prophets

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18 Nov 2012 - Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

You don’t need the cover of the bulletin to tell you what time it is, at least according to the liturgical calendar. Ordinary Time never comes to a close with a whimper but with an apocalypse. When we hear Daniel envisioning the arrival of Michael, the archangel of the last battle, we know Judgment is on its way. It’s “a time unsurpassed in distress since nations began,” and so on, and so on. But seriously, when was it ever different for the people of Israel? Take your pick: slavery in Egypt, conquest by Assyria, exile in Babylon, the freedom-fighting of the Maccabees (which, by the way, is what the Book of Daniel is really all about), Roman oppression—heck, it’s just about always “a time unsurpassed in distress” in Bible stories. The only other kind of “time” is dismissed in a sentence: “The nation was at peace.” “There was great joy that day.” What more needs to be said when things are going well? Yet before long it's time to turn back the dial to unprecedented turmoil and cue the angel of destruction. Jesus follows the traditional script pretty closely. Sun, moon, and stars are disrupted in their normal astrologically significant courses, and angels report for end-time duty. But elsewhere Jesus cautions his disciples not to wait for such signs or to put much stock in them. God’s intentions are still whispered as they were to prophets. To learn all you need to know, Jesus says, pay attention to the trees. The trees? If you’ve ever visited an old-growth forest, or if you’ve made friends with a tree as a child, you don’t need to be persuaded that there’s lots we can learn from trees. Tree stories create their own canopy of truth under which salvation history unfolds: the testing tree in Eden, the gopher wood of Noah’s ark, Abraham’s terebinth at Mamre, Moses’ burning bush, the acacia that frames the Ark of the Covenant, Elijah’s broom tree in the desert, the cedars of Lebanon used to build the Temple, Zacchaeus’s sycamore, the huge tree produced by the tiny mustard seed, the withered fig, the olive trees under which Jesus wept, and the fateful tree that produced the cross. The story of our faith seems to swing from tree to tree. There are specimens on this planet right now that have seen empires come and go, redwoods born at the time of Jesus, bristlecone pines that were hundreds of years old at the time of Abraham. Can we speak of the wisdom of trees, or their silent testimony in the face of human history? Jesus says a tree can tell time. A budding tree says summer is near, and it will never lie to you. Maybe that is why so many report that they find a natural church in the woods. It could be that the trees are more practiced in prayer than we are. Related scripture links Examples of apocalypse in the OT: Isa. 6:1-8; 13:1-11; chs. 24-27; Dan. 7; most of Ezek. and Zech. Jesus and the end-times: Matt. 10:16-33; 24:3-44; Luke 17:20-37; 21:7-36 Paul and eschatology: Rom. 13:11-14; 1 Cor. 15:20-28, 50-56; 1 Thess. 4:13-17 Like a weaned child: Ps. 131 Catechism links Creation and us: CCC 198; 279-314; 337-349; 668; 2115-2117; 2415-2418

Authors Alice Camille

judgment day trees

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