Thin lines

There is sometimes a thin line between being merciful and being an accomplice.

There is also sometimes a thin line between being morally evaluative and being damnably judgmental.

Today’s Gospel challenges us along these very lines:

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Stop judging and you will not be judged.
Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.
Forgive and you will be forgiven.

Give and gifts will be given to you;
a good measure, packed together,
shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap.

For the measure with which you measure
will in return be measured out to you.

It is important for us to be clear about what is right and what is wrong. It is important for us to speak the truth and to act in the interests of justice.

But it is critical that we be always explicitly clear about our personal sinfulness, our need for God’s mercy for ourselves, and our obligation to be instruments of God’s mercy for others.

It is a challenge to do all this, but we are called to be perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect, in and through the wonders of his grace.