Condemning Others

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Have you ever observed fellow Christians judging each other? Good, devout people, running others down because they practice their faith differently?  

Maybe you have heard things like:   


"Those people just don't get it." 

"Where did they get THAT idea? That's ridiculous!" 

"They're not acting very Christ-like." 

"Why aren't they doing more?"   


On and on the condemnations go. I have little patience for this sort of thing. 

I was thinking about this last Sunday when I heard this reading proclaimed at Mass. It comes, in part, from the famous passage from the Gospel of John, Chapter 3, Verse 16-18:  

"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God."  

Two things come to mind:  

If God did not send Jesus into the world to condemn, then WHY do we think it is OUR job to condemn others?  

Secondly, rather than God condemning us, we actually condemn ourselves when we don't believe in Jesus.  

Ouch.  

Maybe we should check ourselves a little more. We tend to blame everything on God. 

The work of Jesus has always been to save. We don't save ourselves. We don't save others. Only Jesus saves.  

We do have the responsibility, though, to invite, attract, inspire and inform others, but it is kind of hard to be effective if we are poor listeners. Neither is it good if our own--personal--agenda is so etched in stone that we turn people off.  

In that case, the guilt is upon us. What we can--and should be doing--is listening, loving and speaking from a genuine heart. That is the catholic (universal) way that Jesus taught.  

It is so important that we express the beauty of being part of the Church. Worshiping with others, moving closer to Christ, responding to God’s call and looking forward to heaven are a few of the many reasons we try to live a faith-filled life and why we want to encourage others to join us. 

But condemnation and attempts to force others is never the way. 

It is quite as simple as Jesus himself said, in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 10, verse 14: 

“Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words—go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet.” 

Janet Cassidy 
Blog: janetcassidy.com 
Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/reflectionsinfaith/

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