MONDAY HOMILY FOR 2ND WEEK OF LENT / YEAR B
MONDAY HOMILY FOR 2ND WEEK OF LENT / YEAR B
THEME: USE OF THE FACULTY OF JUDGMENT & COMPASSION
BY: Benedict AGBO (Rev Fr)
* Dan 9: 4 – 10, Lk 6: 36 – 38.
‘Be compassionate as your heavenly Father is compassionate. Do not judge or condemn others. Forgive and give as much as possible! ‘. If there is anything we must learn and teach /hand over to our children, let it be compassion and generousity. These are the secrets of lasting prosperity. That’s why Jesus says emphatically in today’s gospel: JUDGE NOT…CONDEMN NOT…FORGIVE…GIVE…Surely, Jesus does not forbid the use of the faculty of judgment, otherwise our judges and teachers (who must judge their clients and students) would seize to function. We have to judge between good and bad; We have to evaluate human behaviour to see how far we can accept them without getting influenced and affected by them, especially when they are posited by significant and influential personalities; We have to judge new doctrines and theological ideas to see whether they are in conformity with the Church’s teachings; And more importantly, we have to condemn the evil done in the society especially by powerful rulers, otherwise the society will end up under the dictatorship of few powerful evil rulers.
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What Jesus forbids is hasty judgments (judgments without sufficient evidence); uncharitable criticisms (criticism coming from a motive of hatred); unmerciful judgments ( judgments laden with punishments that are more punitive than corrective). Edward Wallis reminds us that ‘There is so much good in the worst of us and so much bad in the best of us that it hardly becomes good of any of us to talk about the rest of us’. Yes, this is true, but one caveat here is that if nobody condemns evil becomes everybody is guilty then evil will have his field day. That is why TU QUOQUE (You too) ARGUMENT is always a fallacy in logic. J Mason gives us a more balanced advice: ‘Judge yourself with the judgment of sincerity and you will be able to judge others with the judgment of charity’. Always understand that most people who sin do not know what they are doing and deserve to be forgiven. Igbos say: O NWERE NKE A MA UMA EME? Our people will say: E KWEGU OGBA ARU UWA (People don’t often intentionally decide to wound themselves).
For those who insist that they must correct others through punishment and brutality, let them realize that though they may think they are doing the will of God, they themselves will one day need compassion from God and will not receive it. According to Edward Wallis, ‘There is so much good in the worst of us and so much bad in the best of us, that it hardly becomes good of any of us to talk about the rest of us’. J Mason concludes with this wise counsel: ‘Judge yourself with the judgment of sincerity, and you will judge others with the judgment of charity’.
For those who insist that they must hoard their well earned resources from the poor (most of whom they believe are responsible for their own plight), let them realize that unshared resources are very useless resources which must either be left for termites to consume (example some whose bank accounts are liquidated by unknown fraudulent bankers) or abandoned for friends or enemies to take over. As Prof Peter Ebigbo eloquently put it: ‘Life is an improbable series of improbable probabilities’. It is cyclic and karmic. We better be careful to learn from others’ plight. May God bless you today!
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