Posted on 06/19/2013 7:19:17 AM PDT by cleghornboy
Once again, The Catholic Free Press [Diocese of Worcester, Massachusetts] has demonstrated that it is not committed toward offering its readers an authentic Catholic teaching. Writing in the June 14, 2013 edition, Fr. Conrad S. Pecevich, Pastor of St. Anne's Parish in Southborough, correctly notes that, "Time and again throughout the Gospels, Jesus chastised the religious people of his day, the Sadducees and the Pharisees, for their hasty judgmental attitudes."
So far so good. But then Fr. Pecevich writes, "When we commit the sin of judgment, we place ourselves morally above others. We forget that, like them, we are poor, miserable sinners who fall short of the glory of God. Passing a judgment is passing a sentence on another."
Is Fr. Pecevich right? Is all judging wrong? Those Catholics who believe so apparently believe that love of enemies means condoning vice and sin. In the words of Dr. Germain Grisez, one of the finest moral theologians of our time, "It might seem to follow that love must accept everyone, even enemies, just as they are, and to affirm them even in the error or sin which is present in them. But the law of love does not require indiscriminate affirmation of everything about other persons (see Saint Thomas Aquinas, S.t., 2-2, q.34, a.3). One's love must be like Jesus'. He loves sinners and brings them into communion with himself in order to overcome their error and sin. When the scribes and pharisees bring a woman caught in adultery to Jesus, he not only saves her from being stoned to death but warns her not to sin again (see John 8:3-11). In a true sense, Jesus is not judgmental...
(Excerpt) Read more at lasalettejourney.blogspot.com ...
But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, and he himself is judged of no man."Judge" and "discriminate" are Forbidden Words. It's too bad, because they're really useful.
Neither seems to be quite right, Love the Sinner, Condemn the Sin.
Judge that the fact that an action by a Sinner is Sin, Recognize it for what it is.
Do not condemn the Sinner though, since Christians know that through Christ it is possible for our Sins to be forgiven.
That is what I was taught.
I think the reason that so many leftest hate Christianity, they don’t like having it pointed out that they are living in Sin. But at the same time, no one is condemning them and stoning them in a pit like what occurs in Islam.
We rightly judge actions, not people. It doesn’t have to be any more complicated than that.
Love must come first always...without love no understanding or salvation is possible. The love of Christ shining through his followers is the only way to change a heart reveling in sin...It can’t be faked. It is hard to love those who openly mock what Christians hold dear, but people mock what they fear. Love shown to those who fear will never fail. Only faith and a relationship with Christ gives us the strength to love those who hate us.
These same “Catholics” would turn “turn the other cheek” into a suicide pact.
We're bearing false witness, are we not? As our false witness works to his detriment, are we not doing so "against him"?
What does God say about bearing false witness against our neighbour?
“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”
I love that quote, but I find it interesting that folks usually will not follow it up with what Jesus told the woman after this verse.
“Now go and sin no more.”
Exactly. Jesus didn't judge her (he will, of course, at the appropriate time), but he clearly judged her actions. We do well to follow his example.
“and publicly praise his actions as good ...”
replied to the wrong guy? Are you confused?
No, I did not accuse you of doing anything.
I picked you post as a hook on which to hang my thoughts regarding the eighth (ninth) commandment, and whether or how we are to "judge" another's behaviour.
Ok, I just couldn’t make sense of it.
The commandment forbids bearing false witness against our neighhbor. Most especially, that would be making false statements about him which would tend to harm him.
It would seem conversely to require speaking the truth.
So ...
If we see a brother engaged in sin ... and we praise him for it ... call it good ...
It seems to me that we're speaking falsely about him, and (by encouraging him to continue in his sin) bringing harm to him.
Seems to me that meets the criteria for "false witness".
Conversely, bringing his sin to his attention and calling him to repent would be speaking the truth about him, and doing so to prevent further harm coming to him.
So it seems to me that even the 10 Commandments require or at least condone judging another person's behavior.
Thoughts?
I think you are over thinking it, it really isn’t that complicated.
False Witness is simply saying something that you know to be untrue about another.
It's certainly not the usual take on that commandment.
I'm tossing an idea out in the public forum, to see how it develops.
It's always possible I'm going off the rails.
We have an obligation to ensure that the person knows that his action is sinful.
Not because it is false (as in lie), no, because it is much worse in the eyes of God.
This represents false teachings:
False Teachers (2 Peter 2:1-3)
1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; 3 and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
And this is exactly what is going on in our Society right now.
In doing this, you are actively acting as an agent of the Devil to lead God’s Flock off to be slaughtered. This condemns yourself as an enemy of God, not a mere sinner.
OK ... I certainly agree that 2Peter articulates a positive obligation to teach correctly, and therefore to offer charitable correction to our hypothetical sinning brother.
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