Today I learned from Jesus that I should never judge a person based on his or her past but only on the present moment. Think about it this way. Perhaps you have a family member who lived a very sinful life, a life that affected his or her closest relatives and friends. But now that person totally changed. He or she apologized to those that were hurt by them, came back to God, to His church and the sacraments, and now lives a good and exemplary life. See, it is difficult to believe in people’s conversion, in people’s change, especially if we know their terrible past and what they had done before. In the gospel reading, the Pharisees were scandalized that Jesus did not send away that ‘sinful woman’ who came to Him to ask for His mercy. “If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner”- they said. They only judged that woman by her past. But Jesus looks at the present, at the very moment that woman came to say that she was sorry for her sins and now she will change her life. This is how Jesus looks at each one of us. He looks at the present moment, and this is how we should look at others - not so much looking into their past, but seeing who they are now.
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