De non judicando proximo

On the saying of the Jews, "You have a demon," and on "Do not judge by appearance." Just as the light-bearing moon, whitening the dim things of the night, illuminating beauty for those on land and sea, for sailors and travelers, works an unimpeded journey for each; so also the teacher of the Church, like the moon, radiating the splendors of the knowledge of God through speech, sends both those who run past the brine of pleasures in the sea of this life and those who walk the Christ-bearing road to the truth, Christ. And divine Scripture also knows how to name the teachers of the Church living in a holy polity under the image of the moon and stars, as the prophet David says: "The moon and the stars, which you established." But it is clearer to see from the words of the Apostle the difference of the saints named in the order of sun, moon, and stars: "There is one glory," he says, "of the sun and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars, and star differs from star in glory." Come then, and let us, shining like a very small star, clearly show you the flashes of the evangelical meanings. So the Jews said, it is said, to the Lord: "You have a demon"; but he, "Do not judge by appearance, but judge the just judgment." O Jews, you say I have a demon: compare my works with yours, and having examined in the balance of your conscience, say who then has a demon, I or you? Do not judge by appearance, but judge the just judgment.

You crossed the Red Sea as if through a grassy plain, and in the desert you received water transformed into an indescribable sweetness from a rock, and quails falling from the midst of the air; and after the provision of so many and even more other goods, when Moses went up the mountain, you made a calf and worshipped the legion of demons; but I came and drove the legion of demons away from humanity. Who then has a demon, I or you? Tell me. Do not judge by appearance, but judge the just judgment. You sacrifice your sons and daughters to demons, but I raised the widow’s son and the archisynagogos’s daughter when they were dead: the one lying in a coffin I healed by the touch of my hand, sending the healing power to the one lying within; the other I raised from death by a word, as from sleep. Who then has a demon, I or you? Do not judge by appearance, but judge the just judgment. You, with the fabricated words of Jezebel, killed Naboth, dug up the vine, the parent of gladness, and made it a vegetable-bearing field, food for the weak, as the Apostle says, “For the weak eats vegetables”; but I, having healed and made healthy in the blink of an eye those who had fallen low like vegetables due to illness, gave them a share of the bread of heaven, and again cultivated them into the same order, saying, “I am the vine, and you are the branches.” Who then has a demon, I or you? Tell me. Do not judge by appearance, but judge the just judgment.

You sawed Isaiah with a wooden saw and destroyed him; I, having fitted together the humanity dissolved by death through the participation of the wood of the cross, raised it up. Who then has a demon, I or you? Tell me. Do not judge by appearance, but judge the just judgment. You cast the prophet Jeremiah into a pit of filth and suffocated him; I, the prophetic word that had died in the filth of your pleasures, I drew out and established in the souls of those subject to me. Who then has a demon, I or you? Tell me. Do not judge by appearance, but judge the just judgment. You killed the great Zechariah between the temple and the altar; Zechariah is interpreted as "memory of God"; I, coming, this Zechariah, the memory of God, who was killed by you between the temple and the altar—that is, between body and soul, for the body is a temple of the soul, and the soul is an altar of God, in which the offering of rational worship and the incense of prayers are sent up—this memory of God I made alive and settled in the hearts of men, so that all who receive it might serve God as priests. Who then has a demon, I or you? Tell me. Do not judge by appearance, but judge the just judgment. The disciples of the Lord also remember this saying. For when they were accused by the scribes and Pharisees of not teaching in the name of Christ: "Did we not strictly command you not to teach in the name of Jesus?" And behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching.

Then they answer, at the same time recalling unjust judging, and say: If it is just to listen to you rather than to God, judge. See also the prophet, beloved, in the psalm just chanted to us, speaking most clearly about the Lord’s incarnation and about not judging unjustly: God stood, he says, in an assembly of gods, and in the midst he will judge gods. And who would this God be who stood in an assembly of gods, if not certainly Christ, who stood in the assembly of the Jews, who were once gods, to whom he replied, I said, You are gods? For as far as God’s philanthropy is concerned, he called them gods; but as far as their own wickedness is concerned, they died as men and fell like one of the rulers—not earthly rulers of men, but those who fell from the heavenly vaults, concerning whom Paul also says: Our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. So God stood in an assembly of gods, and in the midst he will judge gods. He will judge gods from among the once-gods, the Jews. And the Holy Spirit says to them: How long will you judge unjustly and take the side of sinners? And the Lord says: Do not judge by appearance, but judge the just judgment. Then again the Holy Spirit: Judge for the orphan and the poor. See how it introduces everything about Christ, teaches everything, wishing to kindle the injustice committed by them: For judge, it says, for the orphan and the poor, vindicate the lowly and the needy.

But perhaps someone among the hearers will say, and show that we are at a loss, that the Lord has been heard as an orphan. For that he is poor, it is easy to learn from the Apostle's words: "Who for our sakes became poor, though he was rich." But who would be an orphan, if not one who has neither father nor mother? Listen to the Apostle speaking about Christ: "Fatherless, motherless, without genealogy." The Lord is fatherless on earth according to his humanity, and motherless in the heavens according to his divinity. Judge for the orphan and the poor, for him who became poor for our sakes. For he has become all things to all, more than the Apostle, in order to win all. Justify the humble and the needy. Learn from me that I am meek and humble in heart. But what does he say? "They did not know, nor did they understand; they walk in darkness." They did not know the Word of God become flesh for our sakes; for the Word became flesh, not by being changed, but in that he dwelt among us. They did not know the eternal form of divinity in the image of the servant; they did not know; for if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But neither did they understand; for they did not understand the power of his miracles, how many symbols he had.

images. They did not understand the treasure hidden in the field, that is, the divinity concealed in the flesh, and the one dwelling in the heavens with the Father. They did not understand the events concerning Lazarus. They did not understand the stone rolled away from the tomb, that it signified the removal of the foolish heart of men. They did not understand the tomb itself, and Lazarus lying within for four days, what it was a type of, that the tomb was in the image of the body, containing within the mind that had died and become dead. For truly our body was a tomb before the coming of Christ, as it says in the Gospel: "Whited sepulchres." Truly we were tombs filled with dead sins, having within the mind slain by pleasures, the four-days-dead and already stinking mind, the mind composed of the four cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance. Likewise the body is composed of the four elements: hot, cold, wet, and dry. They did not know, nor did they understand; for not having received Christ the light, they walk in darkness. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. Let all the foundations of the earth be shaken; not of the earth that is trodden, but of that of which it is said, "You are earth, and to earth you shall return." For the foundation of the body is the soul; when it departs, just as when a foundation gives way, the house of our tabernacle collapses. Let all the foundations of the earth be shaken, that is, let the souls be moved and transferred from idolatry to the knowledge of God. Then, "Arise, O God," it says, "judge the earth.

Arise, the crucified one; arise, the one who bound our sins in the image of thorns upon his own head. Arise, the God, judge the earth. He said the earth, not the heaven. Do not be afraid, beloved. If you have been reborn from water and Spirit, you are heaven. For all of you who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. As the earthly man is, so are the earthly; and as the heavenly man is, so are the heavenly. Arise, the God, judge the earth, for you will inherit among all the nations. You are the Christ, to whom the Father has given authority over all, authority to judge all. For the Father judges no one; he has given all judgment to the Son, so that they may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. You will inherit among all the nations. For the Father said to you: Ask of me, and I will give you nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession. Therefore let us give glory to God in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is glory for ever and ever. Amen.