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M
ONDAY
OF
THE
T
WELFTH
W
EEK
IN
O
RDINARY
T
IME
2 Kgs 17:5-8, 13-15a, 18
Psalm 60:3, 4-6 12-13
Mathew 7: 1-5
S
UMMARY
Jesus said to His disciples:
ˈStop judging, that you may not be judged.
For as you judge, so will you be judged,
and the measure with which you measure
will be measured out to you.ˉ
R
EFLECTION
Such a simple command, yet how difficult it is for us to follow. We all start out
with the good intention of accepting people as they are without any prejudges.
But it seems the only time we actually accomplish this is when we are a small
child. Very young children are able to do this because there are no incidents in
their lives to give them reason not to accept someone as they are. But as we
progress through our lives we find people disappoint us in many little ways, and
maybe in some big ways, and we begin to qualify our relationship with each per-
son we meet based on these past encounters.
We have all experienced a time when we met someone and based on how they
look, or how they are dressed or even by their speech, we form an image of who
they are as a person. We may consider them less educated than us, or lacking in
some basic social skills or even somehow a threat to us. Based on that image
we˅ve created we act in some manner that is less than openly accepting and we
may actually react to them in some prejudicial manner. Then after a few moments
of observation or maybe some conversation with them, we discover that our initial
evaluation was completely incorrect.
It is at these times we should reflex on how pervasive our personal prejudices can
be and try to be aware that we are judging people on a regular basis. Now it is
normal to perceive people in context to certain circumstances and to make a
judgment to avoid contact or engagement in conversation as a natural means of