Sharing Justice and the Danger of Harsh Judgment

And to Stephen the duty; if one looks toward the magnitude, it is not sufficiently, but if toward the power of the one saying, it is sufficient: that to our God is the glory unto the ages of the ages. Amen.

A Pharisee man, as we recently heard Luke saying (Luke 7:36), invites the Lord to a meal and leads Him to a dining room and sets a common table. But he neither declines the invitation nor flees the man, whether being a disciple or having believed, yet being bound to the letter of the law and not yet having opened the eyes toward the knowledge of the truth, and being made dull toward the promises of the prophets.

What then has Luke written this summary for us (Luke 1:1-4)? Whether so that we may have the knowledge of what Jesus accomplished living in the body, and receive useful knowledge of history? Or that a certain useful and educational thought fills our life, regulating it toward the right and the incorruptible? Thus, I think it is good to have, and it is fitting for you to be persuaded.

For many are those justifying themselves, self-loving and self-sufficient, swollen in presumption through empty wisdom, calling sinners those who approach, and before the true criterion comes, separating themselves like lambs from the shouting ones and looking toward the door of the kingdom as if it were about to fall to them, not being worthy to share with the many in a roof or in bindings, but loathing all those who walk not the extreme, but the middle path of life.

Therefore Luke, the physician of more souls than bodies, wrote the narrative in hand not merely as a word, but as a medicine for those sick with self-will, showing Him, our God and Savior, the incomparably pure and only righteous, most compassionately associating Himself with those who are recognized as sinners and with those who not yet...

Sharing with those who have been purified, not in order to take on their wickedness, but in order to impart one's own righteousness, according to this solar energy which appears, so as to present the providence of the Creator to the creation.

For we know that the sun does not only illuminate the elevated regions, but also as many places as are deeper and lower than the human position. Let us therefore cease if any of us think in such a way as the Word says; but let us imitate the merciful and man-loving nature of the Master by descending to the lowly, not so that we might humble ourselves to those who are lowly, but so that we might lift them up, just as certain swimmers lift up those who are drowning toward this life-giving air.

Since the Gospel letter leads toward a noble thought, let us stretch ourselves toward the intended goal. I wonder greatly at those who are surrounded by this passion and love of flesh, yet are defeated each day by sleep and the stomach—and indeed, not only having an endless supply of other provocations common to all of us who share the same and one nature—how they are such harsh judges of those who sin, while being so forgiving of themselves; they are weak combatants and unnecessary lawmakers, as if to deny hope in the philanthropy of God and to block, as they suppose, the abundant source of mercy and, with much authority, to bar the entrance to the Kingdom from those who wander. This is nothing like divine economy, but brings misunderstanding to souls seeking healing. For the slave who has lost hope in the cure becomes entirely a stranger to the disease and to every promise of our Scriptures; for even to the one examining such things wisely, nothing is granted except by grace and healed by forgiveness. And who is so sarcastic and disobedient to the words of Job, shouting out to everyone that...