September 11
Stop Judging Others
Today's Gospel: Luke 6:39-42
Reflection:
I am not going to lecture you about anything when
it comes to judging others. Instead, let me tell you a true story about a
priest and a confessor. A woman came to confession. She'd been judging people
left and right, meddling, whispering, tearing others down behind their backs.
The priest gave her a strange penance. Take a bag of packing peanuts, he said.
Go to the top of the church. Dump the whole bag out into the wind and let them
scatter. Then go down and collect every single one.
She tried to collect them all but quickly
found out that she couldn't. The wind had already carried them off, into
gutters, bushes, places she'd never find. Some were gone for good. That's
judgment, the priest told her. Once it leaves your mouth, you don't control
where it lands. Every unkind word, every whisper, every bit of gossip, is scattered, and you can never ever take it back. You can apologize, but you can't unsay
it; the damage is done, the scar remains.
That should stop us cold before we speak.
Because judging others isn't a private little thought we get to keep to
ourselves; it spreads, and it spreads quickly. It reaches people we never meant
to touch. So, before the words leave your mouth, ask if you're ready to lose
control of them forever. If not, let them stay unsaid.
Kindness and mercy go a long way.
Till tomorrow, on these same pages, have a
great day.
If every judgmental word you said about
someone today scattered like those peanuts, never ever able to take them all
back, would you have said any of them?
Rosary Man Jim
🌹
Freely given. Freely shared.
