This morning I was listening to EWTN to hear today's Word. Fr. Mitch Pacwa was giving the sermon. I love that he explains things so well, he's so genuine and he really knows how to apply the word to our every day situations.
He was talking about judgment today. It had to do with a reading from the Book of Jonah (3:1-10) and Jesus' discussion of Jonah in the Gospel of Luke 11. To me it seems that there are 2 extremes of judgment. It can happen that someone labels everyone they meet with numerous different criticizims of how they are as a person and someone that won't judge anyone in a sense that they won't say whether or not something is right or wrong because they are afraid of criticizing at all. Sorry that was a major run-on.
Fr. Mitch clarified a few things in the sermon today. He said that we, of course, do not have the right to judge someone's soul. We don't know what is to become of them in any afterlife. We don't know their intentions, their past, their issues, their state of mind, and we can't see the inside of their hearts. We just can't know that. We can't say that they are "a bad person" or that they are "unworthy" of anything.
He also said that we DO need to judge BEHAVIOR. We can decide whether or not an action is right or wrong. He discussed the fact that God WANTS us to use the minds he gave us. He gave us free will and wants us to be creative beings. It's important that we study, learn, explore, and seek. So it's important for us to judge behavior for ourselves. We should decide whether or not an action is appropriate or inappropriate. I'm also a believer in teaching our children the "why", not just telling them "you can do this" or "you can do that". They must learn how to decide for themselves. That seems to be one of the most basic necessities in living on your own; learning to make your own choices and how to make good ones. I believe God gave us that responsibility in teaching them. I'm a new mother. My first child is not even a year old yet and I know I'm far from perfect so this will be a challenge for me to carry out well. I do believe in doing it though and I intend to try my best.
Fr. Mitch also discussed how much he loves science and supports the continuation of exploration. It seems to me that he believes that God put us humans here of course to do good, but also to explore the earth and use our minds to the best of our ability. He sees how much science points to the beauty of God's creation.
Thank you Fr. Mitch for inspiring me in decision making and giving me more appreciation for my faith.
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