One Saturday morning a few years after my divorce, I was walking out the front door of St. Mary’s Catholic Church where I had stopped to make a little visit before I headed off on my busy day. As I walked to my car, I gazed out to Main Street and something unexpected caught my attention. A massive dude on a Harley Davidson motorcycle drove past the church, and he definitely fit the part: long hair, goatee, tattoos, and lots of leather and metal. But that wasn't what really caught my attention. The surprising thing was as he motored loudly past St. Mary’s, he made the sign of the cross.
Imagine that! A biker dude was acknowledging Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist that is contained within the tabernacle of the church, something my own parents had taught my siblings and me to do while we were growing up. This guy didn't seem to care in the least what an observer might think.
I loved being able to witness that moment as I left the church that morning. Who in the world would have thought some big, burly biker dude would be reverencing the Eucharist in public as he roared down Main Street? No one would have expected that from a guy like him. And that is my point.
People, especially Catholics, are far too quick to make blanket judgments.
He’s a biker, so he can’t be a good Catholic. Or,
She’s a single mother, so she can’t be a good Catholic. Or,
He's gay, so he can't be a good Catholic. Or,
They are divorced, so they can’t be good Catholics.
True, not everyone we encounter is striving to live a holy life, but to make a rash judgment about someone you know little about isn't really very Christian-like. Isn't it possible that the person you or I are most likely to write off as a hopeless sinner is sincerely struggling to live a holy life and we just don't know it?
This sort of judgmental behavior is precisely why so many divorced Catholics stay away from their parishes. The common complaint is that just because they bear the label of "divorce," those who aren't divorced automatically assume they were unwilling to work on their marriage, or they have some huge problem that makes them an awful person, or they just left the marriage because they got tired of working on it.
Do not be a noisy gong or clanging cymbal!
Let's be candid, shall we? If you knew the sins I was struggling with, you'd probably be scandalized. And I'm willing to bet the reverse is true.
But being Catholic is not about drawing a thick black line between us and other "sinners." Sincerely living our Catholic faith is all about helping each other get to heaven, especially the ones whom we might judge to be more scandalous than ourselves. Which means making rash judgments about others has the propensity to render us as noisy gongs and clanging cymbals that St. Paul so vehemently warns us not to become.
How do you love and serve others instead of judging them?
One of the most eloquent examples of what a Catholic should be today is Saint Mother Teresa. No one was too lost for her to love or too low for her to serve, and she did it all out of love for Christ. Every wound she washed and dressed, every hardened heart she softened, every truth-seeker she instructed was Christ in the flesh to her and she loved Christ through her service to others until her final breath.
And in my estimation, Pope Francis described it best when he said, "The church’s ministers must be merciful, take responsibility for the people and accompany them like the good Samaritan, who washes, cleans and raises up his neighbor. This is pure Gospel."
Do not give into the temptation to judge others on their particular struggles.
Catholics are just as motley a crew as the next bunch. We come from all perspectives and backgrounds, and I believe one of the biggest challenges we face today as Catholics is the temptation to judge others by their particular struggle with sin, write them off, and consider ourselves superior to them.
Don't get me wrong...I am not in any way trying to diminish the severity or eternal consequences of sin, because that is a reality no one can escape. I'm simply wishing out loud that Catholics would be known more for their love for others and a sincere interest in helping people get to heaven, rather than just trying to be right all the time.
