“Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. 

Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap.  For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you. 

And he told them a parable, “Can a blind person guide a blind person?  Will not both fall into a pit?  No disciple is superior to the teacher; but when fully trained, every disciple will be like his teacher.  

Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?  How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,’ when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.

When I try to boil this down so that I can incorporate this teaching into my life, I come up with one word: “Empathy.”  A kind and empathetic heart will see God’s creation in the other person.  Recognizing the other as belonging to God, helps us to want to extend mercy and love to that person.  It helps us not to judge from a hypocritical place.  After all, we each have great big planks in our eyes at times, don’t we?

Cecilia Carroll