A Priest's Wise Comments on "Judge not, that you be not judged" (Matthew 1:7, DRV)

One must make a distinction between INTERNAL and EXTERNAL judgment.
When Our Lord says: "Judge not, that you be not judged" (Matthew 1, Verse 7,
DRV), His dictum refers to one man's judgment of another man's INTERNAL state of
soul. Only God can see the internal disposition: was the external action
done out of good or ill, out of friendship or fear, etc.? Man can see only
the external result, not the internal intention.

On the other hand, WE MUST MAKE EXTERNAL JUDGEMENTS. We do this
every day. A parent judges his child's action unacceptable and punishes him.
A judge or jury judges a criminal guilty. We judge that murder is wrong,
that adultery is wrong, that theft is wrong. These are external judgments
that we must make by God's authority. Otherwise, the commonweal falls. We
must judge the external action -- we don't want criminals walking around
because they cannot be judged! God gives us that authority, as He
established the state with its due authority: "Render therefore to Caesar
the things that are Caesar's" (Matthew 22:21/DRV).

So what does this "judge not" dictum really mean? St. John clarifies
it for us: "Judge not according to the appearance: but judge just judgment"
(John 7:24/DRV). In other words, it is not judgment itself that is
condemned, but UNJUST judgment. Catholic teaching is that just judgment is
proper when it pertains to EXTERNAL judgment. For example, it is perfectly
acceptable to judge an external act such as murder, to consign the murderer
to the courts, and to execute the murderer if found guilty.

What we cannot do, as only God can do that, is judge the INTERNAL
disposition. Perhaps the murderer was not compos mentis when he committed
the murder. Courts can try to infer from external actions what might have
been the internal motive, just as a priest can try to infer the culpability
of a penitent, but only God knows the true heart as a certainty.


Edit: If you type Matthew 1: followed by 7 in the text of a post, you get
"Matthew 1" followed by a smiley face!

(Colon followed by 7 = smiley) Nothing wrong with smiles, but a bit distracting
in the middle of the text! :7

Matthew 1:7

smiley come from? I knew I didn't use any smilies. . . Matthew 1:7

Then you can type 1:7 and other references without them interfering.

That was castigating people for taking action against the prostitute.