Seeing the best in others

 

In the Abba song, ''I have a dream,'' there is a line that says, "I believe in angels, something good in everything I see.'' The Jewish rabbis said the same thing, ''Among the great works that bring credit upon us is thinking the best of other people.'' That is exactly the message that Jesus is teaching us in today's gospel from Matthew 7,1-5. It is towards the end of the Sermon on the Mount.''Do not judge and you will not be judged,'' and to emphasize his teaching, he uses a very exaggerated expression. ''Why do you observe the splinter in your brother's eye and never notice the plank in your own?'' But so often we are not conscious of our own defects when we criticize the defects of others. Do we bring others down to build ourselves up? We are ready to judge others but do what we know what they are going through which causes them to act in a certain way? However we do know that we have our own faults and we ask God to forgive us, so why can't we be ready to understand others?

 

I like the story of the woman who invited a young Australian singer to entertain her guests. After she had sung the woman said, ''What a terrible voice. She should never be allowed to sing again.'' The singer was Nellie Melba, soon to be considered one of the great sopranos! Help us not to judge, Lord, so that instead of focusing on the 2% that annoys us in other people, we can see the 98% of good that is in them. Jesus has a dream for all of us. It is called the Golden Rule, ''Do to others as you would have them do to you.'' (Matthew 6:12)