“Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give, and gifts will be given to you.” Virtually everyone is familiar with these words of Our Lord. The directive to avoid judging is particularly popular in our contemporary moment. Even those without any religious convictions are wont to recite, “judge not, that ye not be judged.” No one is perfect. No one has a right to render an evaluation on others. Thus, the reasoning goes, we should all be patient and tolerant with the failures of those around us. Acts of condemnation are panned. Judgmental actions are not endorsed in our time.
And yet peculiar exceptions to this non-judgmental posture appear with some frequency. We widely laud a condemnation-less demeanor, yes. But we also tend to highlight the failures and inadequacies of others. Our behavior in this context, it would seem, can diverge greatly. On the one hand, we extol non-judgmentalism. On the other hand, we cancel those who transgress sensibilities that we consider to be sacrosanct. We esteem a spirit of acceptance. And yet we can also ostracize those who disqualify themselves from our acceptance. Is non-judgmental human behavior so fragile and mercurial?
A close inspection of Our Lord’s words in today’s Gospel show that he is revealing something much more profound than mere behavior adjustment. His message is about something foundational to behavior and action. Jesus is not merely teaching us to be nice to each other. (We do not need the Son of God to tell us this. Everyone already instinctively knows that others should be treated with respect, esteem, and even deference.) Our Savior did not come to tell us something that is obvious and natural. He came to reveal something that eludes human discovery: the supernatural truth about God.
At the core of today’s Gospel resides these profound words: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” We notice that Our Lord, here, ties all of his holy teaching back to the Heavenly Father. In other words, Jesus frames this gospel not around us and our attitudes (i.e., behavior adjustments). Rather, the center of his saving message is the Eternal Father himself and who we are in relation to him. Ultimately, Jesus is telling us about who God himself is more than he is telling us about how we should act by ourselves.
The kind of mercy that Jesus invites us to embrace is something beyond our natural capacities. Naturally speaking, it is impossible for a creature to be merciful like the Father. Only God can be merciful like God is. This is a standard of mercy that exceeds human behavior. Only God can be merciful in this manner. We cannot make ourselves merciful like the Father apart from the Father himself.
How are we to be merciful like the Father? We can only be merciful like the Father if we exist and act from union with God the Father. In other words, only God can make us merciful like himself because only God is able to be merciful like he himself is. God alone can do what God alone is. Rocks can only be rocks. Trees can only be trees. Human persons can only act as human persons act. The mercy of God is something beyond the creaturely plane of being and existence (and behavior). Thus, in order to act in a way beyond creaturely limitations, we must have a deep union with the God who is beyond our created limitations.
Our Lord’s message points to our very identity—not just to our activity. Jesus reminds us of who God is. Only when we have received the mercy of God the Father will we be able to act according to this divine mercy. And how to we receive this mercy? We encounter “God the Father of mercies” in the Sacrament of Penance, through which we are really reconciled to God—even in our brokenness. And as reconciled, we can extend mercy to others.
Only those who find their identity in the merciful Father can be merciful like the Father.
