"Let me sing the song of love."

Ave Maria!  Today's readings from Mass, Dn 13:41c-62 and John 8:1-11, remind us that we may never judge a person.  Never.  Ever.  That is reserved for God alone, and only his judgment is true.  Blessed Mother Teresa used to say, "If you judge people, you have no time to love them."  She's so right!.  And I also have no energy to love because I've spent it all on myself.  Judging others is really all about me -- all about what I think, what I feel, what I want, what I expect.  I don't know what's in another person's heart, mind and soul.  I barely know what's in my own, and then I project that onto someone else.  The author and speaker Dr. Wayne Dyer observes that "When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself."  Passing judgment on another reveals to me the pettiness and hardness of my heart, which God created to be a vessel of His love.  And His love has been poured forth into our hearts, St. Paul tells us, through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us (Rom 5:5).  That is what Jesus did on the cross for us when He died, His blood gushing out in a never-ending stream of ineffable love. 

Deepen Your Love in me, O Lord, that I may learn in my inmost heart how sweet it is to love, to be dissolved, and to plunge myself into Your love.  Let Your love possess and raise me above myself, with a fervor and wonder beyond imagination.  Let me sing the song of love.  Let me follow You, my Beloved, into the heights.  Let my soul spend itself in Your praise, rejoicing for love.  ~Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ