Why are we so ready to judge our neighbor? Why are we so concerned
about the burden of others? We have plenty to be concerned about, each
one has his own debt and his own sins. It is for God alone to judge, to
justify or to condemn. He knows the state of each one of us and our
capacities, our deviations, and our gifts, our constitution and our
preparedness, and it is for him to judge each of these things according
to the knowledge that he alone has. For God judges the affairs of a
bishop in one way and those of a prince in another. His judgment is for
an abbot or for a disciple, he judges differently the senior and the
neophyte, the sick man and the healthy man. Who could understand all
these judgments except the one who has done everything, formed
everything, knows everything?
I remember once hearing the following story: a slave ship put in at a
certain port where there lived a holy virgin who was in earnest about
her spiritual life. When she learned about the arrival of the ship she
was glad, for she wanted to buy a small serving maid for herself. She
thought to herself, ‘I will take her into my home and bring her up in my
way of life so that she knows nothing of the evils of the world.’ So
she sent and enquired of the master of the ship and found that he had
two small girls who he thought would suit her. Whereupon she gladly paid
the price and took one of the children into her house. The ship’s
master went away. He had not gone very far when there met him the leader
of a dancing troupe who saw the other small girl with him and wanted to
buy her; the price was agreed and paid, and he took her away with him.
Now take a look at God’s mystery; see what his judgment was. Which of us
could give any judgment about this case? The holy virgin took one of
these little ones to bring her up in the fear of God, to instruct her in
every good work, to teach her all that belongs to the monastic state
and all the sweetness of holy commandments of God. The other unfortunate
child was taken for the dancing troupe, to be trained in the works of
the devil. What effect would teaching her this orgiastic dancing have,
but the ruin of her soul? What can we have to say about this frightful
judgment? Here were two little girls taken away from their parents by
violence. Neither knew where they came from; one is found in the hands
of God and the other falls into the hands of the devil. Is it possible
to say that what God asks from the one he asks also from the other?
Surely not! Suppose they both fell into fornication or some other deadly
sin; is it possible that they both face the same judgment or that their
fall is the same? How does it appear to the mind of God when one learns
about the Judgment and about the Kingdom of God day and night, while
the other unfortunate knows nothing of it, never hears anything good but
only the contrary, everything shameful, everything diabolical? How can
he allow them to be examined by the same standard?
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