"I don't want to judge, because it is not right to judge someone," was a comment I made to my parish priest while I had a discussion with him on morality.
"Of course you can't judge someone," he said; God is our judge, he will judge our actions at the end of our life." You can, however, pass judgment on a person or situation," he continued. "Because by passing judgment we look at our consciences and decide if an action was morally correct."
Frankly, I never looked at it that way. Most people would sorely criticize me for making a "judgment" on their actions. However, his explanation makes sense to me.
I understand we all have a moral compass that gauges how we are doing spiritually. It is all too easy to blow it off and walk away from an unpopular subject, or to just not get involved at all.
A long time ago, a family member came to me with a very hard question. It was regarding abortion. She was pregnant and wanted my advise.
I told her that she "was asking the wrong person," because, I added " I do not believe in abortion".
I was pushed harder for an answer and I finally said "don't do it, you will be sorry. This can be a very special time in your life, while inconvenient, I believe you will regret your decision later." There, I had said it. It felt good, very good.
As it turned out 18 years later, it indeed was a very good decision. She gave birth to a beautiful girl, who has grown up to be everything a mother could want and more.
The point is, I got involved. It might have been easier to say nothing, or simply say, "listen to your gut."
Perhaps my parish priest is on to something. People just don't judge enough anymore. The new age folks like to say "there is no right or wrong, it just is."
We all know deep down inside of us there is a right or wrong. Making hard decisions builds character, whether we like to admit it or not. The issue is, passing judgment is not a popular thing to do. It takes guts to express one's feelings or judge another's actions on right or wrong issues.
After all, I know I am judged every day for what I do. Like it or not. People just don't come out and TELL me that they think I did something wrong, but they think it nonetheless.
Maybe if we passed judgment on our family, friends and coworkers' more often we could avert many of the tragedies going on in the world today:
The list continues on.
"Of course you can't judge someone," he said; God is our judge, he will judge our actions at the end of our life." You can, however, pass judgment on a person or situation," he continued. "Because by passing judgment we look at our consciences and decide if an action was morally correct."
Frankly, I never looked at it that way. Most people would sorely criticize me for making a "judgment" on their actions. However, his explanation makes sense to me.
I understand we all have a moral compass that gauges how we are doing spiritually. It is all too easy to blow it off and walk away from an unpopular subject, or to just not get involved at all.
A long time ago, a family member came to me with a very hard question. It was regarding abortion. She was pregnant and wanted my advise.
I told her that she "was asking the wrong person," because, I added " I do not believe in abortion".
I was pushed harder for an answer and I finally said "don't do it, you will be sorry. This can be a very special time in your life, while inconvenient, I believe you will regret your decision later." There, I had said it. It felt good, very good.
As it turned out 18 years later, it indeed was a very good decision. She gave birth to a beautiful girl, who has grown up to be everything a mother could want and more.
The point is, I got involved. It might have been easier to say nothing, or simply say, "listen to your gut."
Perhaps my parish priest is on to something. People just don't judge enough anymore. The new age folks like to say "there is no right or wrong, it just is."
We all know deep down inside of us there is a right or wrong. Making hard decisions builds character, whether we like to admit it or not. The issue is, passing judgment is not a popular thing to do. It takes guts to express one's feelings or judge another's actions on right or wrong issues.
After all, I know I am judged every day for what I do. Like it or not. People just don't come out and TELL me that they think I did something wrong, but they think it nonetheless.
Maybe if we passed judgment on our family, friends and coworkers' more often we could avert many of the tragedies going on in the world today:
- School shootings
- Parents killing children
- Drug abuse
- Corporate theft
The list continues on.
I don't know if I can tell my coworker that the mini-skirt she is wearing is way too young for her.
After all, I am passing judgment, aren't I?
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