“Who am I to judge?”

A common excuse for not taking a stand against various moral evils is the question: “Who am I to judge ‘Bob’”?

The problem stems from a misunderstanding of judgement.

God is the judge. He decides whether each individual is His child or a disciple of the devil (1 John 3:10).

Of course we are not to judge where others stand in God’s eyes, or even where we, ourselves, stand.

When asked if she was in a state of grace at her trial in 1431, 19-year-old Joan of Arc (c. 1412-1431) remarked, “If I am not, may God put me there; if I am, may He keep me there.”

The saint knew she would likely be martyred for speaking the truth and found guilty of heresy/witchcraft at her own trial, yet she still did not dare judge her own soul before God.

So, who are we to judge? What is the distinction? Like St. Joan of Arc, we are morally obligated to discern what is true and false, and what is good and evil–for our own sake, and for the sake of others.

But how?

The standard of command

Through the 10 commandments, God told us what is good and what is evil.

But God also commanded us to love others like He loves them (John 15:12), and love what is good and hate what is evil (Rom 12:9).

Notice these two instructions don’t include the threefold cultural commandment of being nice through diversity, equity and inclusion.

These are but a mockery of the Trinitarian nature of the authentic truth, goodness and beauty that God wants us to impart to each other in charity.

We must be able to discern good from evil so we won’t be led astray by Satan’s deceptions that mimic true goodness.

Everyone wants a friend who is willing to tell us the truth, even … especially when we’re wrong. If we’re 30 feet in the air, for instance, we want someone to tell us if we’re close to falling before we fall.

So how do we know we are doing this?

We study the evidence.

The judge, the jury and the the witnesses

In a court of law, there is the judge (the one who judges the truth based on the strongest evidence produced by the witnesses), the jury (the people who study evidence given by the witnesses) and the witnesses (the primary people who give a first-hand account).

In life, God is the judge, and we are charged with being the jury, and–if we’re living like we should–the witnesses. Our “witness” is how we choose to live and act.

In Greek, the word “martyr” means “witness”. Christian martyrs would rather die than deny the truths of their faith or renounce Christ, so they become the ultimate “witnesses.”

Martyrs and murderers

Not to be confused with martyrdom, someone who dies while committing acts of violence towards others out of vengeance or hatred is not a martyr.

They have committed murder as their primary goal, and are therefore not martyrs, but murderers (1 John 3:15).

Interestingly, Joan of Arc was an ironic martyr because she was murdered by high-ranking members of her own faith, of which she vowed her love and faithfulness to the bitter end.

Like Christ, she was considered a rabble-rouser and died as a political pawn, courageously upholding the truth that was revealed to her by St. Catherine of Alexandria (c. 287-305 AD); St. Margaret of Antioch (d. 303-305 AD) (both were also imprisoned, tortured and killed by their respective government leaders); and spiritual-war-general, St. Michael the Archangel.

Similarly, God had selected Israel to be the first “witness” to the world, sanctified and set apart from all other nations to be the bearers of the one true God.

They would be the nation that would bear witness to His Son.

“See, I have made of you a witness to the peoples, a leader and a master of the nations” (Isaiah 55:4 JB).

Under whose authority?

As St. Joan of Arc proclaimed, we cannot know whether someone is right with God at any given moment because we are all under the same Judge. We don’t have that authority.

There is only one Person who walked the earth with this authority: Jesus of Nazareth. Historical and Scriptural evidence, the witness of the martyrs and saints, and all scientific and philosophical truths point to His power and authority over us.

The apostle Matthew recorded, “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Mt 28:18).

At His command, demons flee. At His word, weather and elements of storms desist. At His touch, illnesses are cured. By His power, substances of bread and wine transform into Him in sacramental form. Under His authority alone, sins are forgiven.

No one else on earth has changed individual lives so dramatically, even come close to transforming entire nations, raised Himself from the dead (with over 500 witnesses), reset the calendar years, inspired so much hope and goodness like the institution of public charities, hospitals and universities, and still performs the same miracles stated above all over the world thousands of years later.

There’s a reason for that: No one else is also God.

Have a blessed week!

“And his teaching made a deep impression on them because, unlike the scribes, he taught them with authority” (Mark 1:22 JB).