Judgment vs. mercy

"Do not judge before the time.  Most especially, do not judge others. We are to be hard on ourselves, working out our salvation in fear and trembling, while being generous toward others. Our only hope for salvation is in the mercy of God and therefore, as Jesus admonishes again and again, we must be merciful to others.  The mercy we give will be the mercy we receive." - Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, Death on a Friday Afternoon

I've recently been taking to heart the message that I should cut myself some slack.  (Seriously.)  I have a tendency to be hard on myself.  I was taught from early on that no one should ever have to be harder on me than I am on myself.  It was a message of personal responsibility that I took seriously, right along with my good-hearted uncle's message that I was the 14-year-old "man of the house" after my dad died.  And because I've provided abundant reason to be hard on myself since then, that shoe fits really well.

As with most spiritual truths, there is room to err on both sides of this one.  We often tend to be judgmental of others - at least, of some others, those whose offenses we deem really bad - while dismissing our own faults as not so serious. In fact, I think that if we're going to view our own shortcomings as small, we need someone else's to compare them against favorably.  It's the Pharisee in us, giving thanks to God that we're not like those sinners, even that one over there.

At the other extreme, we can view our own failings so severely that we withdraw ourselves from God's service, deeming ourselves unworthy of being useful to the community of faith.  We feel we must not give a testimony that can be undercut by our flaws.

The glory of God is found when our unworthiness isn't an issue for us any longer.  If my testimony acknowledges my weakness, my failings and unworthiness, but emphasizes that God is greater than my shortcomings and sins, then I begin to approach the mark.  I realize the mercy I've already received, and am eager to share mercy with others.  And I trust in God, not to be merciful to me because I am merciful to others, but because God is merciful to all.  I think it's just the nature of mercy that we cannot truly receive it in its fullness without also extending it.