“If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy, and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity is patient, is kind: charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely; is not puffed up, is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil” ~
1 COR. xiii. I, 2, etc.

The law of fraternal charity strictly forbids us to injure our neighbor: first, in the estimation of others, as is done by calumny or detraction; and, secondly, it forbids us to injure him in the estimation of ourselves. We injure the neighbor in our own estimation when, by rash judgment, we hastily, and without sufficient grounds, think evil of him, or form a bad opinion of him. He may be as anxious to stand well in our estimation as in that of any one else.

The sin of rash judgment is committed in several ways: 1. When we judge ill of any one at first sight, and form a bad opinion of him from his mere words or outward appearance. 2. When we ascribe to a bad intention any good, or indifferent, or apparently bad act performed by our neighbor. 3. When, from one sin which we see our neighbor commit, we at once conclude he is addicted to that sin. 4. When we judge that, because he is addicted to a certain sin or vice, he is, therefore, certain to be lost and sent to hell. 5. When we hastily condemn our neighbor, and do so without first taking the trouble of considering what might be said in his defense.

The sin of rash judgment is greater or less in proportion to the matter upon which we form the judgment, and the nature of the ground, or evidence, whether strong or weak, upon which we form that judgment. Hence, if we form a rash judgment of a particular person known to us, in any serious matter, we commit a mortal sin. Ah ! my brethren, if this be so, as it is, I fear our mortal sins of rash judgment are beyond counting. I fear that we have never done sufficient penance for them. They may be unseen by men, but are they unseen by God ? We should not think evil of any one, let him be ever so unworthy; nor can we do so without God seeing us, for our most secret thoughts, no less than our public actions, are open as the noonday to God. “Detract not the king, no, not in thy thoughts, and speak not evil of the rich man in thy private chamber: because even the birds of the air will carry thy voice, and he that hath wings will tell what thou hast said” (Eccles. x. 20).

Do those who profess to do things above board, give way to rash judgment under board? Is God likely to be satisfied with such judgment?

Rash judgment is a common sin : it is to be found in all ranks and classes of society. The man who gives way to rash judgment is, as a rule, a man of a corrupt heart and a crooked mind. He looks at others through the distorted medium of self. A man with jaundiced eyes thinks everything he sees is yellow. If you look through green spectacles everything will appear green; if through black spectacles, everything will appear black. If you look through a distorted medium, everything will appear crooked. As a man’s own mind is, such is the judgment he is likely to form of his neighbor. Hence, a robber thinks every man else is a robber. As the Scripture says: “The fool when he walketh in the way, whereas he himself is a fool, esteemeth all men fools” (Eccles.X. 3).

The evil which you rashly judge to be in the heart of another may not be there at all; but, whether it is or not, by your act of rash judgment you show it certainly exists in your own heart. Like begets like. “Wherefore,” says St. Paul, “thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. For, wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself. For thou dost the same things which thou judgest ” (Rom. ii. i). At least you do the same things in thought, and God condemns sinful thoughts as well as sinful acts.

Rash judgments usually commence with suspicions. How given to suspicions some persons are! You can scarcely say or do anything, good, bad, or indifferent, but they will put evil constructions of their own upon it. St. Augustine, in his beautiful book on “Friendship,” chap, xxiv., says : “Above all things, take care you admit no suspicions into your mind, because they are the poison of friendship.” And St. Bonaventure calls suspicions “a secret plague, but a very dangerous one; because it drives God far from us, and tears in pieces fraternal charity.”

Whenever, then, you hear rumors or stories, however plausible, against your neighbor, do not rush at once to condemn him, but, as a wise and charitable man, carefully suspend your judgment. Do unto him as you would wish to have done to yourself. Wait till you examine into all the circumstances, for the slightest circumstance may alter the whole case. Perhaps the charge against your neighbor may originate from malice, or from resentment, or mistake. “Hear the other side” is a maxim received by all wise and Christian men. It is easy to err in judging our neighbor. Susannah, and Joseph, and Magdalene, and the Publican were apparently guilty, and yet, at that very time, they were really innocent before the Lord. Was not there rash judgment formed against our blessed Lord Himself!

Appearances are often deceptive. Even the appearances of good, as well as those of bad, are deceptive, and this is specially true when a man is found who has the name of being ” very good” and “very pious,” etc., and yet, after all, is one who, to the certain knowledge of God, unfortunately falls into the sin of rash judgment. No man is spotless that commits this sin, even though he were “Simon Pure” in his own estimation.

To pronounce correctly upon the goodness or badness of our neighbor’s act, it is necessary that we see his intention, for it is the intention that gives character to the act; but we cannot possibly see the intention, and, therefore, the difficulty of ever “thinking evil” of our neighbor, without falling into rash judgment and violating charity. I (and I alone) am the Lord who search the heart and try the reins” (Jer. xvii.). If, however, we cannot excuse the act, we can, and should, in charity, excuse the intention, or, at least, attribute the act to human frailty, or to some violent temptation. Those are lifeless who are faultless.

We always try to excuse those whom we really love; therefore, when we condemn our neighbor by rash judgment, we show that we have no real Christian love for him, and, consequently, we stand convicted as criminals, deserving nothing less than eternal death; for, says St. John: “He that loveth not, abideth in death” (i John iii. 14).

Every man sets a value upon his character. There is no man that has not got a right to his character, and hence, to deprive him of it, by rash judgment, would be to commit an act of injustice. How angry God must feel toward that man, then, who, without sufficient reason, or a shred of authority, takes the statue of his neighbor from its rightful place in the halls of charity and dashes it into atoms!

But, my brethren, by rash judgment you do injury not only to your neighbor, the work of God, but you do injury to God Himself: for, by judging your neighbor, you thereby usurp the Divine jurisdiction: you take the authority out of God’s hands! God can bear anything but this. He has reserved exclusively to Himself three things : His honor. His revenge, and His judgment. The right of judging each and every man’s heart He will not give to man. Even Christ Himself, as man, had not the right of judging men. He had it only as “given to” Him by His Eternal Father (John v. 23).

As with the Tree of Knowledge, so with the right of judging our neighbor; God will not allow us to touch it, or to meddle with it at all.

Of course, Almighty God has established an external court of judicature for the purpose of promoting public peace and justice; and He has established, also, an internal court of penance; but, besides these two, He has established no other. And, accordingly. He gives no authority whatsoever to any man, in His individual capacity, to judge his neighbor.

God is the Divine Master : every man is His servant, and is His servant in the truest and highest sense to God only. But, “who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? To his own Lord he standeth or falleth” (Rom. xiv. 4). On the Day of Judgment, but not till then, shall we know with certainty who was good and who was bad. Though our neighbor were really guilty, we are not permitted to judge until then. “Therefore,” says St. Paul, “judge not before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts ” (i Cor. iv. 5).

St. Anastatius, the Sinaite, says that : “Whoever judges before the coming of Christ is Antichrist, because he usurps the authority of Christ!”

Ah ! my brethren, what is this you are doing when you commit the sin of rash judgment? Does your knowledge, or your wisdom, or pretended zeal for religion, or your piety (?) authorize you to steal the authority from the Judge, and to trample under foot the beautiful and tender flower of fraternal charity?

My brethren, “charity thinketh no evil”: why, then, should you think evil of your neighbor? Have you not enough of evil in yourselves to “think” over and to root out? Hypocrite, why not remove the beam out of your own eye? Why not practice what you preach? Physician, why not cure thyself first?

“In judging others a man labors in vain, often errs, and easily sins; but, in judging and looking into himself, he always labors with fruit” (“Imit. of Christ,” chap. xiv.).

My brethren, it is particularly dangerous to judge others; for our judgment of them shall be made the rule by which God will judge ourselves: “With what judgment you judge, you shall be judged” (Matt, vii. 2). “Condemn not and you shall not be condemned” (Luke vi. 36). This means that, if you, by rash judgment, condemn others, God will also condemn you.

Let us frequently pray to God to deliver us from falling into the dreadful sin of rash judgment. Let us pray, also, that God would protect us from being the subjects and the victims of the rash judgment in others. Let us ask of God, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, to always regard the judgments of men as St. Paul regarded them: “But, to me,” said he, “it is a very small thing to be judged by you” (i Cor. iv. 3). Amen.

Discourses from the Pulpit (1891)
Father O’Keeffe