Homily for 5 Nov 2015

5 Nov 2015

We’re constantly making judgments; we can’t help it . . . it comes with having a brain and being able to think.  But there’s judgment and then there’s judgment.  You know, if we see little white flakes falling from the sky, we say: “It’s snowing!”  It’s a simple judgment of fact.  And we can make those judgments.  But it’s when we judge other people that we can get tripped up.

There are “good” people and there are “bad people.”  You know, we can say that the saints are “good” people, each in their own way.  And we can say that terrorists are overall “bad” people.  And those are statements of fact; they’re judgments of fact based on how the saints or the terrorists enhance or tear down the common good.

But can we say the saints are worthy of God’s mercy and the terrorists are not?  As much as we may want to say, “Yes,” that’s a judgment that’s up to God alone.  The Pharisees judged rightly that the tax collectors were sinners.  That was a judgment of fact.  But they judged wrongly that those sinners were unworthy of God’s mercy . . . because that’s a judgment only God can make.

And God made his judgment regarding sinners: he invites them to his table and shares a reconciliatory meal with them.  Sinners are worthy of God’s mercy—who are the Pharisees to judge otherwise?  And who are we to judge otherwise?

We’re constantly making judgments about the world we live in, and the people we encounter.  And we’re free to make all the factual judgments we can.  But when it comes to somebody’s worth as a human being—even the worst of sinners—that judgment is up to God.  And none of us is God.  May he be merciful to us as we are merciful to our fellow sinners.