Thou Shalt Not Judge or Shall We?

In the words of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Creator: "If thy brother shall offend against thee, go, and rebuke him between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou shalt gain thy brother" (Matthew 18:15). “To admonish the sinner” is first among the chief spiritual works of mercy. To admonish the sinner. – Whenever we think our words may have a good effect, we should not hesitate to admonish the erring prudently. Those in authority, such as parents and teachers, are bound to admonish those under them of their faults, even if in doing so they bring trouble upon themselves.
We know from the story of Samuel in the Old Testament that a hesitation to admonish those we love existed in the priest, Heli (1 Kings 2:22-36). Because he hesitated to correct the inappropriate and even blasphemous offenses of his sons, he brought disaster not only upon himself but upon his two sons and his house as well (1 Kings 4:1-18). Jesus warns us about the sin of omission, what we fail to do: “Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to me” (Matthew 25:45). Among the ways we can be accessory to another person’s sin is through command, counsel, consent, praise, provocation, silence, assistance, defense of the evil done, and not punishing the evildoer. Being silent when it is our duty to speak out is a sin.
St. Augustine writes,
“Medicinal rebuke must be applied to all who sin, lest they should either themselves perish, or be the ruin of others… Let no one, therefore, say that a man must not be rebuked when he deviates from the right way, or that his return and perseverance must only be asked from the Lord for him.”
Today, unfortunately, the Ten Commandments have been replaced with what Alan Wolfe refers to as America’s Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt not judge. William Bennett notes that “if they will not judge, they can be rightly suspected of being without convictions.” Those without convictions often proclaim a mistaken notion of tolerance:
“But ‘tolerance’ can be a genuinely harmful force when it becomes a euphemism for moral exhaustion and a rigid or indifferent neutrality in response to every great moral issue—when, in G.K. Chesterton’s phrase, it becomes the virtue of people who do not believe in anything.”
Withholding charitable correction when called to do so is plainly against Jesus’ teaching, and against the love of neighbor. St. Thomas writes, “The greatest kindness one can render to any man consists in leading him from error to truth.” Fraternal correction is a loving act, because it seeks to help our brothers and sisters attain their greatest good and happiness, God in Heaven.