In this section you can find a daily commentary on the Gospel of the Day.

Saturday 20 July 2024

Fifteenth Week in the Ordinary Time

Word for today
The Gospel of Matthew 12:14-21

Judgement

Those who use their minds, their mental processes to judge, get their brain to disconnect from reality, so that they become schizophrenic and eventually paranoid. Those who judge  disconnect themselves from reality, loses his inner centre, gets misaligned with respect to life. The Pharisees judge everything and everyone, always. The Pharisees are so caught up in judging, they are so disconnected from reality, that they do not realize  they are taking counsel against Jesus, the heavenly sovereign judge, to destroy him. The Pharisees take council against Him who holds in his hand the scepter to judge all worlds and universes. The Pharisees are so paranoid that they regard the Messiah, who saves and heals, who is the Beautiful Shepherd meek and humble of heart, their worst enemy. The Pharisees take council to judge the judge, to condemn the Lord of Life to death. The Pharisees accuse Him of whom, by the prophet Isaiah's voice, the Father says, Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom I delight; I shall place my spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not contend or cry out, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory. And in his name the Gentiles will hope.
In ancient times, a court could not convict the accused to death before they had sent a messenger, an ambassador to the accused's homeland, in order to collect any positive and benevolent testimony which could somehow mitigate the court's decision. When the  messenger arrived in the homeland of the supposedly guilty, he cried out the name of the accused along the streets waiting for any positive testimony in his favor by the people who had known him. The messenger would hold a wick in his hand and a bruised, but not broken, reed. He would stay a few days in that land and, if in the meantime none of the inhabitants came to him to testify in favor of the accused, he would give the sign that the final sentence could be pronounced: the messenger would turn off the wick and break the reed. The biblical text reveals that when the heavenly Father, the Sovereign Judge, the King of the multiverses, comes to judge all the living beings, he will act as the messenger of ancient times, with the difference that, even if he fails to find any positive evidence,  bruised reed he will not break, a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory. The judging-Pharisees take council to condemn the only One who can judge and, when he does, will do  with his heart full of mercy and peace and only after having led all righteousness to victory. Anyone who, in his thoughts, judges the others, certainly does not use his intelligence, as he does not realize as he judges, so will he be judged, and the measure, the hardness and coldness with which he measures, will be measured out to him. Never judging anything and anybody, and remitting all judgment to God, who knows, sees and can do anything, is an extraordinary act of spiritual humility and intellectual coherence.  Avoiding judgement is the most effective way to keep our own inner dialogue focused on the present so that our thoughts will always lead us to feel love and gratitude, mercy and compassion.