Romans 14 talks about judgment of the other in vivid detail. Look closely at what Paul has to say:
Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. 2 One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. 4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
5 One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. 6 Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. 8 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.
10 You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. 11 It is written:
“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will acknowledge God.’”
12 So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.
The natural response to this reading might be introspection in the form of questioning. “Am I judgmental toward others? Do I give grace and latitude for others when I disagree? Do I have opinions that really don’t need to be expressed as that situation doesn’t pertain to me?” While these questions are good and useful, I wonder if there is another set of questions we could ask ourselves…
“Am I able to allow grace to flow into me or do I reject it due to my feelings of unworthiness?”
“Can I rest in the fulfillment of God’s forgiveness through Christ’s sacrifice, honoring that which was done for me; or am I putting myself on my own cross and disallowing Christ’s salvific offering to include me, too?”
“Can I take compliments without needing to deflect, honoring God’s gifts bestowed upon me? Or will I defer to self-incrimination and point out the bad instead of allowing others to lift up the good?”
These are holy ponderings worthy of consideration. Each of us has difficulty in one area or another: Faith, self-worth, emotional availability, forgiveness (of ourselves and/or of others), and myriad other spaces within our hearts and minds. What if, for just one moment, we stopped and allowed grace in? I’m not saying that we should ignore our faults; we need to own them and fail upward. I am saying, however, that we should think about the positives more.
Many of us are not comfortable in our own skin—whether that be entirely or in certain situations. God’s grace covers us at all times, so perhaps we should be gracious enough to accept it. Accept compliments with a simple thank you. Accept forgiveness when it is offered and don’t ruminate on the sin. Accept someone else’s folly for what it is, a mistake, and offer them the same grace that is offered to you freely.
If we can do this, if we can allow for God’s holy love to fill us with hope and faith, then the fear will be crushed little by little as God paves a new path in our souls. We can choose. We can choose to be led down right pathways for His name’s sake, or we can wander in the wilderness of self-doubt and loathing. As for me, I’m going to try and be better about forgiving myself; about forgiving others; about allowing grace to do its thing; and about listening to God in the hard moments of my darkest hours rather than turning off the lights.
Let light perpetual shine upon you, in this and every age. We are not dead. We are living examples of what ‘good’ is in this world, because we were lovingly and masterfully created to be just that: The image of God. Rest in your imperfections and know that only God makes you perfect at the end of the age. The rest? It’s all secondary to the grace that comes freely, unbidden, unrelenting, and unending. Accept it. Love yourself.
Because God does.
Faithfully,
Fr. Sean+