Vigils Reading
2025-04-09
YOUR VERDICT ON OTHERS,
WILL BE THE VERDICT
PASSED ON YOU
From a homily by St Asterius of Amasea
◊◊◊
If you desire to resemble God, for you have been created in God’s own
image, imitate your model. You, Christians, whose very name calls to mind love,
imitate Christ’s love. Consider and wonder at the wealth of Christ’s love for us.
When he was about to show himself to us in our own nature, he sent John to
preach repentance by word and example. Before John he sent all the prophets.
They too were to teach people to amend their lives. Then he came himself and
with his own voice cried out: Come to me, all you who labour and are
overburdened, and I will give you rest. And how did he receive those who
listened to his call and followed him? He readily forgave them their sins,
instantly relieving them of all their cause for grief. The Word has sanctified
them and the Spirit has confirmed them. Their old self was buried in the waters
of baptism and a new self born; their youth was renewed by grace. And the
result? Enemies of God became his friends, strangers to him became his
children, idolaters became worshipers of the true God.
You, therefore, who are harsh and unable to show gentleness, learn
goodness from your Creator. Do not act as bitter judges and severe arbiters
toward those who are your companions in service, as you wait for the coming of
One who will reveal the secret recesses of the heart and, as the Almighty Lord,
will assign to each person their proper place in the life beyond.
Do not pass severe judgments that you may avoid being judged with the
same severity, being pierced yourselves by the words of your own mouth as by
sharp-pointed teeth. For it is against this kind of fault that the words of the
gospel seem indeed to warn us where it is said: If you want to avoid judgment,
stop passing judgment, your verdict on others will be the verdict passed on
you.
Christ does not thereby mean that he wants to banish discernment and
wisdom. What he condemns is a condemnation that is too severe. So, lighten as
much as possible the weight of your measurement of others, if you want your
own actions not to be considered excessively heavy when our lives are weighed
at the divine judgment… Do not refuse to act mercifully that you yourselves may
not be sent away unpardoned at the time when you will need forgiveness.
