Character assassination
30.09.2009
The two middle-aged women were chatting in the bus. In their sensible coats and footwear they exuded an air of respectability. Secure in their opinions, they provided a mild distraction to their fellow travellers.
People got on and off as the women dissected their neighbours’ families. Then the door opened and in came a glamorous young woman who sat in front of them. Her make-up was flawless, her hair a shining golden colour, her lips a vibrant red. Dressed in a lownecked top and tight mini-skirt she was the epitome of all the two gossips disapproved of.
After a brief silence while they eyed her up and down, they began to attack the dreadful carry-on of young people today, especially young women. Shooting barb after barb, they relentlessly laid all the evil of society at the feet of those floozies who dressed provocatively, dolled themselves up with paint and powder and were unquestionably the cause of so many young men going wrong.
Not by a flicker did their ‘victim’ let them know she heard the tirade, though everyone else in the bus knew the score. Looking straight ahead she sat unmoved until she reached her stop. Then, just before she got off she turned to the two women and, in a clear voice said, “When you go home look up the first paragraph of Chapter 7 of St Matthew’s gospel.” Then she was gone.
It is probably a safe bet to say that everyone on that bus who heard her made straight for their Bibles when they got home. There it is, “Do not judge.”
We never, of course, see ourselves in our own eyes as the smug, self-satisfied critic those two women portrayed. Our self-righteousness is often hidden from us; we are never the ones sitting in judgement on someone else’s life. How easily we see the judgemental attitude of others, and condemn them for it, and yet are unaware of the cruelty with which we undermine and write people off.
“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. For as you judge others, so you will yourselves be judged, and whatever measure you deal out to others will be dealt to you,” (Matt 7: 1-2). If we are to come to true conversion and purity of heart, Henri Nouwen says in his book, ‘The Return of the Prodigal Son,’ one of the main things that has to happen is that we must move from being judge to being repentant sinner. Insight into our own sinfulness and awareness of our need for God’s grace will curb the urge to judge others.
“Why do you pass judgement on your fellow-Christian?” Paul asks (Rom 14:10). He goes on to urge us give it up and, “rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of another.” He wants us to walk in love, in caring and compassion as true followers of Jesus, our Lord.
We can hope that those two women on the bus were startled out of their old ways. But first comes the question, ‘Who have I judged today?’
Sister Redempta Twomey is a Columban Sister living in Ireland.
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