Day 40 – The Final Judgment

On this last day of our forty day L.U.C.I.E. Fast, we see that the list of many instructions and admonitions in Romans 12 and 13 are giving way to a detailed treatise on one subject: JUDGE NOT!

As Francis Frangipane has so simply and eloquently said, in this kingdom, only those willing to lay down their lives for others are fit to judge. (Holiness, Truth, and the Presence of God, by Francis Frangipane)

One Sister might judge another slow and clumsy; she who observes this potentially annoying behavior must be the one to tenderly help and patiently pray.

Another might find one of the professed nuns to be abrupt and abrasive; the one making the judgment is the one under celestial orders to pray, to refuse to entertain resentment, to desire above all the others that this flaw might be redeemed and that the offending nun might live to enjoy self command and good leadership without causing others to stumble.

We are commanded to judge as our Lord judges . . . that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, AND that all may enjoy the redemption of grace and learn to walk in light and love. Social, temperamental, environmental, and spiritual forces might be mounted in battle array against change and deliverance, but more are they with us than with them! So judge we all!

This is our judgment in Cor Unum: we would desire that those we love walk in truth, making love their aim, free to worship our God and King and free to love others. Nothing else will suffice, and so we judge ourselves to be kneeling warriors, fighting the good fight of faith, trusting that none are so lost that the Good Shepherd cannot find and rescue them, bringing them back to the fold in his strong, protective arms.


A Banquet of Love
photo by Kerry