Don’t be a judge we are told over and over

Yahweh is a jealous God, different from the gods of other people who allow rival divinities to set up shops side by side with them and answer petitions which they themselves cannot oblige. The Bible teaches that the earth belongs to God and whoever occupies it is only its administrator. It is not for the church to resolve the complex problems of our times, but it can establish general principles of life that conforms to the will of God and adapt it to the present society. There is no authentic love without faith and hope and love reaches its perfection when we are in God.

We experience temptations and struggle, our decisions both small and great lead us in one of two directions, either the old self hopelessly ruined and a slave of selfishness, or a person transfigured by love. God created man in his image, but the one who is truly this image is the risen Christ, conqueror of sin and of death. The white garment that adults put on at Baptism denotes the change of life that they are beginning.

Our prayers will not be heard if love for the world takes the place of God in our hearts. God asks us to love all the things he created, viewing them as means of reaching him, and to reject what does not serve this purpose. Loving the world is wishing for and clinging to things, without working beyond them for God himself and the brothers and sisters that he gave us. We cannot divide our love between God and the world; neither can we ask God to help us satisfy egotistical ambitions. Criticizing others is the same as despising the law of love.

We must see, and at times say, what is wrong in an action, but we must not judge the responsibility of others, nor their intentions, which God alone knows. God is the only judge. We all make many plans: to earn more, to buy things, to have a good time. We may die without having done what mattered most.

Let our experience be that of the poor and the humble. God is near to those who have no other support but him. When there will be no assurance, God will be obliged to take charge of those whom he owes fidelity. May God grant us that we resist the seduction of the world around us but that also we listen to those who correct us.