Notes for19 October 2017

At first sight, this verse is just a concrete supplement to the “general golden rule of ethics ": " Don’t do to others what you will not like them to do to you ". But it is necessary to glance more deeply. We don’t want people to judge us, because we don’t trust their judgments: no matter, they can’t puzzle out anything. We do not accept their condemnations, because we consider that they are better not at all in ours. And that is why we proudly refuse their forgivenesses, what also allows us to forgive nobody. So, we judge, condemn, and do not forgive. But Jesus indeed speaks not only about human’s justice and forgiveness, but also about Divine’s. Everything is different here, God has absolutely the right to judge, and this judgment frightens us because the Judge sees us completely. Well here we begin "to dream" about forgiveness, about undeserved mercy. But we have then to recognize the superiority of mercy over justice and on the way we behave towards others. And this means- don’t judge, don’t condemn, forgive.