One of the problems facing society today is the lack of clarity in determining what is right or wrong. We are being conditioned to avoid making value judgements. Even the injunction of Pope Francis: “Who am I to judge?” has been used without reflection to silence comments on personal and social behaviour.

The media is constantly doing its utmost to make us believe the Pope is going to redefine the Church’s core teachings to suit the mood of the times. This is definitely not the case. As the Good Shepherd, the Pope is reminding us not to judge people when they fail to live up to the ideals of our faith. This in no way diminishes the importance for us to strive to live up to our Christian ideals.

Many years ago, I attended Lenten sermons delivered by the formidable Jesuit Fr Joseph Bernard. With his inimitable wit, he quipped that we should only concentrate on our failings, not those of others.

As Christians, we are constantly reminded that we are all sinners in need of redemption. This basic truth is drummed in at the beginning of Mass and is central to our common prayers, such as the ‘Our Father’ and ‘Hail Mary’. Yet, being accepted for what we are should not be taken as an excuse to remain where we are or, worse, justify wrong behaviour.

The maxim: ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’ should be a challenging benchmark we should always keep at the forefront of our dealings with others. In the current climate of widespread hatred and brutality, we should ponder what role we should have in trying to break down barriers of prejudice and misunderstanding.

On an individual level, we Christians should continually try to improve our behaviour and relations with others. Complacency and self-satisfaction are definitely not considered virtues.

Being accepted for what we are should not be taken as an excuse to remain where we are, or worse, justifying wrong behaviour

Frank Sinatra’s I Did It My Way may be a very popular song but it is definitely not a reflection of how a Christian reflects on his life. Sinatra’s song might boost our morale but it is really the hymn of a braggart. This is also reflected in common statements by successful people when they say: “No one ever taught me anything” or “I am a self-made man”. This is the antithesis of humility.

We often forget the support and invaluable help we have received over the years by so many people in so many different ways. Very often, it may have been unappreciated and unrecognised but this does not diminish its crucial relevance.

Often, on sober reflection, we may find that there are episodes in our life that are not really praiseworthy at all. In quieter moments, this exercise in self-awareness helps us to be more objective about our attitudes and past behaviour. Whatever our status in life, and whatever difficulties we face, we should strive to become better people.

Few people can match the eloquence of C.S. Lewis when he makes the clear distinction between judging the action and judging the person. His comments in his masterpiece Mere Christianity deserve to be quoted and reflected upon:

“Some of us who seem quite nice people may, in fact, have made so little use of good heredity and a good upbringing that we are really worse than those we regard as fiends. Can we be certain how we would have behaved if we had been saddled with the psychological outfit, and then with the bad upbringing, and then with the power, of say, Himmler?

“That is why Christians are told not to judge. We see only results which a man’s choices make out of his raw material. But God does not judge him on the raw material at all, but what he has done with it.

“Most of man’s psychological makeup is probably due to his body; when the body dies all that will fall off him, and the real central man, the thing that chose, that made the best or the worst out of this material, will stand naked.

“All sort of nice things we thought our own, but which were really due to a good digestion, will fall off some of us: all sorts of nasty things which were due to complexes or bad health will fall off others. We shall then, for the first time, see everyone as he really was. There will be surprises.”

klausvb@gmail.com

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.