BE PATIENT! DON'T JUDGE!

You must be patient. Make your heart firm because the coming of the Lord is at hand.  Do not complain about one another that you may not be judged.

James 5:7-10

In my last four houses, I have lived on the busy street of Eastern Parkway. You can see the world from my front porch or deck. It walks by, drives by and shuffles by like a marvelous circus parade. It is some of the cheapest entertainment available.

Some passers-by are regulars. Some pass by only once. There is the middle-aged woman with a distended belly who walks like she has had one or two drinks too many. There is the scruffy middle-aged man, carrying a beat-up old guitar, who likes to aggravate cars with a few in-your-face chords from an old Elvis tune. There is the screaming married couple, with windows rolled down, who decide to have it out with each other while waiting for the traffic light to change. There is the elderly couple, shuffling hand in hand, savoring every squirrel, baby and flower they pass.

There are the St. X and U of L athletes in the Spring, tanned, lean and rippled with muscle, strutting their stuff, proud as peacocks. There is the African-American nurse’s aide from the local hospital with grocery bags in each hand, waiting in the rain for a bus to take her to another day’s work at home. Too tired to stand, she sits on a wet set of steps. Right after New Years Resolution time, there is the overweight, well-intentioned, if not short-lived, jogger who huffs and puffs his way to that leaner and trimmer waistline in his mind’s eye.

What do you see when you see people like these? Do you judge them and score them or bless them? I am embarrassed to admit that I found myself judging some of these people one day as I sat and watched them go by. I was reminded of a line from the movie “On Golden Pond.” Katherine Hepburn says to Jane Fonda when she was terribly frustrated with her aggravating, old father, “If you look closely enough, you will realize that he is doing the best he can.” Remembering that line, I decided to try my hardest to try to bless those who walked by my house and pray for them, instead of judging them and thinking the worst about them! Who knows how lonely, scared, abused or stressed they are? If I have learned one thing for sure in my fifty-five years of priesthood it is this, “You can’t judge a book by its cover! Even when I do slip and judge them, I try to catch myself and remember, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” I try to remember the times I have stood in front of a congregation like you and wondered what you were thinking about me! Are you praying with me or are you thinking to yourselves, right now, “He repeats himself! He must be losing it!! He has such a terrible singing voice that I wish he would stop trying to sing the responses! I can’t hear him or he is too loud! Why can’t he remember to turn his microphone on or off! Has dementia started being a problem for him?”

When I catch myself doing that to others, I am trying to reverse my thinking and stop judging people and start praying for them! I am trying to remember that prayer has the power to help those who don’t even know you are praying for them. In the words of Isaiah, “Why break the “bruised reed?” Why quench the “smoldering candle?” A reed that is bruised may be damaged, but it is not irreparable. A “smoldering wick” may be about to lose its fire altogether, but it can still be reignited! Jesus said in another place, “Do not judge and you will not be judged.” St. Paul says, “The member of the body that hurts the most needs the most care.”

Judging others, especially those we do not know, is a bad habit that says as much about us as the people we judge. Judging another person does not define who they are, it defines who we are! This bad habit can be replaced with the good habit of blessing others and praying for them! All we have to do is monitor our own thinking, check it and replace it with new thinking. A new world is often just a new thought away! Starting today, monitor how you think about and how you judge others! Then make a u-turn if needed! It will be good for them and for you!