More Therese
“Judge not and you shall not be judged.” - Luke 6: 37
An incident in the life of Little Therese came to mind this morning. It happened one Christmas when volunteers were called to leave recreation to open the gates for workmen delivering Christmas trees for the creche. Therese was ready to go do it, finding recreation rather boring, yet she was slow to arise, out of charity preferring the sister next to her to be able to go. The nun in charge of dispatching the sisters for the assignment observed how slowly Therese was moving.
Thinking she did not want to do the job, the nun in charges said, “Ah! I thought as much - you were not going to gain this pearl for your crown, you were going too slowly.” The entire community thought that Therese had acted in selfishness, yet Therese rejoiced in this humiliation. It was in just such little things wherein her delicate sensitivity understood the weakness of others, the necessity to be charitable, and to refrain from judging another, since we likewise can so easily mistake virtue for what is actually an imperfection, perhaps even a selfish act.
If we sometimes cannot always be sure of our own motives, how can we judge the motives of others?
(Thanks to a little Robin for inspiring this post.)
