Once a young businessman was sharing a compartment on a train with an elderly gentleman. When he noticed the old fellow quietly and intently praying with his Rosary, the young man made fun of him for his ‘superstition’ and told him that science had rendered the beliefs of religion irrelevant.
"How did you come to discover that?" the old gentleman asked.
His companion didn’t really know how to answer the question fully right then and there, so he offered to send him a few texts and public lecture notes on the subject for his enlightenment. "What’s your address?" he asked, "I’ll send you the material via the Post Office." The old man rummaged in his coat pocket and produced a tattered business card that read, Louis Pasteur, Paris Institute of Scientific Research.
Louis Pasteur was a 19th century giant and father of microbiology who proved the germ-theory of disease and invented the rabies vaccine.
His commitment to science did not preclude his belief in God.
"A little science takes you away from God but a lot of science takes you back to Him… Question your priorities often, make sure God always comes first… posterity will one day laugh at the sublime foolishness of the modern materialistic philosophy. The more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator."
In today’s Gospel, Jesus shows what a sense of humor he has. He condemns hypocrites for judging others by using the funny examples of one blind man leading another blind man and one man with a log in his eyes trying to remove a tiny speck from another’s eye.
Reasons why we should not judge others: 1) No one except God is good enough to judge others because only God sees the whole truth, and only He can read the human heart. Hence, only He has the ability, right, and authority to judge us. 2) We do not see all the facts or circumstances or the power of the temptation which has led a person to do something evil. 3) We are often prejudiced in our judgment of others, and total fairness cannot be expected from us. St. Philip Neri commented, watching the misbehavior of a drunkard: “There goes Philip but for the grace of God.”
In our families, refusing to judge others is a key to allowing them to be themselves and be loved and loveable.
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