Monday, June 22, 2020 - Twelfth week of Ordinary Time - Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 7, 1-5 - It is alive, effective, the word of God; it judges the intentions and thoughts of the heart.

This Gospel is part of the Sermon on the Mountain, in which Jesus gives his disciples principles of moral conduct. It is a conduct to be followed with regard to others, a warning against the natural tendency of the heart to judge others. When He teaches not to judge, He does not ask His disciples to have no idea about their neighbor's behavior, but to recognize themselves as sinners and to forgive. For all are sinners and all are in need of God's forgiveness and judgment, and this desire for God's merciful judgment must apply, first of all, to others. "The measure you use will be the measure of you."

Then Jesus uses the image of the beam and the straw to evoke that he who judges is worse than he whom he condemns. We are incapable of really seeing into the hearts of others. What Jesus expects of us, in the face of our neighbour, is to acknowledge our personal faults and not to spend our time criticizing or condemning others.