POPE FRANCIS

MORNING MEDITATION IN THE CHAPEL OF THE
DOMUS SANCTAE MARTHAE

God will judge us with the same measure we have for others

Thursday, 30 January 2020

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During the homily for Mass at Santa Marta on Thursday, 30 January, the Holy Father urged the faithful to relate to others in a Christian way, with generosity and love for one day we will be judged in the same measure. He was commenting on the passage from the Gospel of Mark in which Jesus says: “the measure you give will be the measure you get”. Because we will be called to account for how we live our lives today, the Pope explained, we need to take stock not only of the bad or the good things we do, but also of our daily lifestyle.

Each of us has a way of measuring ourselves, things and others and this very same measure will be the one the Lord will use with us. Thus, those who judge others with selfishness, will be judged in the same way and those who have no pity and are capable of “trampling on everyone’s head”, will likewise be judged without pity. Christians, however, have a different model and we should ask ourselves whether our parameters are the ones that Jesus asks of us. Jesus “humbled himself unto death. This is the model”, Pope Francis stressed.

The Holy Father then explained that a worldly lifestyle is incapable of following Jesus’ example. Sometimes, he continued, bishops complain to him when they find it difficult to transfer priests to parishes that are “considered of a lower category” because they believe they are being punished. This is because they use a worldly measure to evaluate and judge rather than a Christian one. Pope Francis concluded the homily by inviting the faithful to live compassionate and merciful lives and to ask the Lord for the grace to live in a Christian way, never fearing the cross of humbleness “because this is the path that he has chosen to save us”.