Prayer for peace
The prayer for peace is held in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Matthew 7,1-5
'Do not judge, and you will not be judged; because the judgements you give are the judgements you will get, and the standard you use will be the standard used for you. Why do you observe the splinter in your brother's eye and never notice the great log in your own? And how dare you say to your brother, "Let me take that splinter out of your eye," when, look, there is a great log in your own? Hypocrite! Take the log out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take the splinter out of your brother's eye.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Jesus exhorts the disciples to not judge. The reason is simple; in order not to be judged. The term judge here is intended in the negative sense of condemning. Jesus' affirmation is very clear and grave: God in fact, will pronounce His judgement on us in the same way that we form it on others. Whoever wants a generous and merciful judgement should be generous and merciful toward their brothers and sisters. On the contrary whoever judges in a cold or mean way will receive the same treatment by God. The reason of Jesus' severity lays in the fact that the definitive condemnation of a human being abolishes the hope that he or she may change. Other is God's thought: "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live" (Ez 33:11). Jesus comes down in the depth of the human soul to uproot the attitude of always being indulgent with ourselves and hard with others. In the Kingdom of God, people do not condemn one another; rather the large measure of God reigns. With a very graphic image Jesus unmasks the violent habit that pushes us to condemn others for the splinter present in their eyes, while we are indulgent in tolerating the beam which is in our eye. The attitude to condemn springs from a heart that does not see anything but its own "I". The Gospel asks every disciple to pay attention to the other with love and therefore also with a judgement so that he or she may grow in following Jesus. While we need to avoid the judgement of condemnation, we need to discern in mutually helping each other to grow in Jesus' knowledge, in fraternal love, and in the Gospel mission. Fraternal correction is such because it is born from a gaze of love and not of disinterest. Jesus asks us to help each other in following the Gospel, loving one another and communicating his love to all.