Page:PracticalCommentaryOnHolyScripture.djvu/527

 “Judge not,  and  you  shall  not  be  judged;  condemn  not, and you  shall  not  be  condemned. Forgive, and  you  shall  be forgiven.

“And why  seest  thou  the  mote  that  is  in  thy  brother’s  eye, and seest  not  the  beam that  is  in  thy  own  eye? Or how  sayest thou to  thy  brother:  Let  me  cast  the  mote  out  of  thy  eye,  and behold a beam  is  in  thy  own  eye? Thou hypocrite,  cast  out  first the beam  out  of  thy  own  eye,  and  then  shalt  thou  see  to  cast out the  mote  out  of  thy  brother’s  eye!”

The qualities  of  charity. God  being  so  good  and  merciful  to  us, we ought  to  be  full  of  love  and  indulgence  towards  our  fellow-men. Since we  ought  to  love  our  neighbour  as  we  do  ourselves,  the  whole law of  brotherly  love  is  summed  up  in  this  maxim: “All  that  you  would that men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye  also  to  them,”  or,  to  reverse  it:  All that you  do  not  want  men  to  do  to  you,  be  careful  not  to  do  to  them. Therefore our  brotherly  love  must  be:

a) sincere.  We  are  to  wish  our  neighbour,  in  our  hearts,  quite  as much  good  as  we  wish  ourselves.  Further,  our  love  must  be

b) practical.  We  must  do  good  to  our  neighbour  according  to our  means:  “Give,  and  it  shall  be  given  unto  you.”  Finally,  our  love must  be

c) universal.  We  must  not  exclude  from  our  love  either  our  enemies or  those  who  have  injured  us,  but  must  forgive  them  from  our  hearts. “Forgive,  and  you  shall  be  forgiven.”

Sins against  brotherly  love.  Our  Lord  equally  warns  us  as  to  all sins  against  brotherly  love,  whether  they  be  committed  by  thought, word, or  deed.

a) Censoriousness  and  detraction.  He  who  desires  to  find  fault  with others,  must  make  sure  that  he  himself  is  better  than  they!  And  yet, do  we  not  constantly  find  that  those  men  who  have  great  faults  of  their own,  are  the  very  ones  who  judge  the  small  faults  of  their  neighbours most  severely,  not  at  all  remembering  their  own  short-comings?  Such men  are  hypocrites,  for  they  pretend  to  detest  and  avoid  sin  in  others, while  all  the  time  they  are  loving  and  cherishing  it  in  themselves.  Furthermore, they  sin  against  brotherly  love  by  preferring  to  talk  about  what  is bad  in  their  neighbours,  rather  than  about  what  is  good  in  them,  and they  are  more  zealous  in  exposing  their  faults  than  in  concealing  them.