By Junno Arocho Esteves
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY — Christians must take a good look at their own sins before calling out their neighbor’s faults, Pope Francis said.
“Look at yourself in the mirror, not to put on makeup so your wrinkles can’t be seen; no, that’s not (Jesus’) advice. Look at yourself in the mirror to see yourself as you are,” the pope said June 20 during the Mass in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae.
The day’s Gospel reading from St. Matthew recounted Jesus telling his disciples to not judge so “that you may not be judged.”
“You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye,” Jesus says.
Pope Francis said it is clear that Jesus “gets a little bit angry here” and is reminding the disciples that those who judge put themselves “in God’s place.”
“This is why it is so awful to judge. Only God can judge, only him! We are called to love, to understand, to pray for others when we see things that are not good and also to speak to them. But never to judge. Never. If we judge, this is hypocrisy,” he said.
When God judges, he judges with mercy, the pope said, adding that compared to God, “our judgment is a poor judgment.”