The Nazareth Page - A gospel meditation for your home
July 19, 2026 – Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Matthew 3:24-33
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
Download this simple process to Prepare for Sunday using the Observe, Judge, Act Method
We seem to be living during a time where the act of judging goodness and evil in others is like an epidemic involving most all of us. Of course, this is especially witnessed in the political arena where judgments relating to political favorites and foes is commonplace. This also results in our dividing people into those who we think are good and those who are not. We label people and divide them into the good and the bad. Politically we do this by placing some on the right from some on the left. In fact, such judgments can consume our thoughts as we look upon others as either good or bad, right or wrong, dangerous or helpful. We think it’s our God-given right to make these judgments.
Today’s gospel somewhat addresses this matter of human judgment though a parable Jesus uses to describe how human judgment of each other’s goodness and evil can be deceptive and even very inappropriate.
Like last Sunday’s gospel we are brought back into a field of grain, something all his listeners that day would be familiar with. The wheat fields of ancient Palestine provided that most basic source of nourishment for all. It directly touched all.
But there was a practical problem. Weeds could infiltrate the wheat fields and possibly limit he desired harvest. Jesus takes this common challenge and applies it to our human attempt to judge others, an act that Jesus points out is reserved to the only one who knows the true content of the human heart, namely God. Our attempt to judge others regarding their goodness or evil will always be no more than a guess. It might also divide into groups that oppose each other based on those judgments.
As we continue our celebration of America’s 250th anniversary, we are reminded of the fact that our survival as a unified country is made more fragile as we create divisions between those whom we judge as more like us from those different from us.
Knowing that this tendency to judge others as favourable to one or not is inherent in human life, Jesus warns his listeners to avoid such judgments. This was a concern for Jesus who saw such tendencies to separate and divide humans in his time, and we can add in every time since. Many of the most personal acts we do often involve judgments of right or wrong. When we focus such judgments on ourselves, we can be reasonably assured that we are correct in those judgments (although not always, of course). But when we turn our judgment to others, we need to be much more careful. Only God can see the truth.
David M. Thomas, PhD