November 3, 2011
who ’s the judge?
Why then do you judge your brother?... For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God. – Romans 14:10
“We live below our means. We wear inexpensive suits and drive American-made cars. Only a minority of us drive the current-model-year automobile.” This is one of the portraits of the American millionaire found in the book, The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and William Danko. The book profiled actual millionaires in the US based on focus group interviews and questionnaires that they answered. The authors said that actual millionaires won’t get a primetime spot on TV since they live dull normal lives, far from what we think about them.
In the same manner, the Church has all sorts of canonized saints. While there are St. Therese of Lisieux-types, who was said to have never committed a mortal sin, there are also saints that had a history of sin like St. Augustine who said, “Lord, make me pure, but not yet.”
What am I trying to say? That it is better for us to give others the benefit of the doubt. People don’t necessarily fit a pattern. Besides, the only pattern that we need to follow is Jesus’ example and command to love others. After all, the final judgment is His. And we, too, will be judged. Joy Sosoban (jsosoban@gmail.com)
REFLECTION:
“Stop judging, that you may not be judged.” (Matthew 7:1)
Lord, help me to see with Your eyes so that I will not easily jud
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