WE ARE A MIXTURE OF GOOD AND EVIL
Saturday of the Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time
My dear encountered couples:
Though we are not supposed to judge people, we do. We hear each other say things, we see each other do things, and almost without hesitation we judge one another’s worth. Is it possible something besides what we hear and see enters our judgment? Like prejudice?
Prejudice is not always against, you know, it can also be in favor. Most parents are prejudiced in favor of their children. Though they may criticize their children and want them to improve, nobody else had better say anything uncomplimentary about them. My child is the best, even when there is evidence to the contrary. Favorable or unfavorable feelings in regard to anyone, color our judgment of them. Which I would say makes us none objective.
If we are going to be none objective in our judgments of people, why not give everybody a break? Get in the habit of focusing on the good people do and give them credit for it, rather than on the bad and condemning them?
I think even the worst of us does good once in a while. Which means that deep down there is still some likeness to God in everybody. “A good man,” says Jesus, “produces goodness from the good in his heart; an evil man produces evil out of his store of evil. Each person, like a tree, can be known by his yield.”
Let us look for the goodness of God that lies at the heart of all good acts, and try to give some praise for it.
