The measure you measure with will be measured back to you,” are the words of Christ in today’s gospel that we would be wise to ponder each and every day. What each one of us “gives out” will simply come back to us, either to strengthen and uplift or to challenge and admonish. We largely determine our happiness and inner resolve.
Before Jesus speaks these words, he commands us, yes commands us, to stop judging and to stop condemning. We are good at noticing the flaws and sins of others, a tendency that blinds us to our own hypocrisy. We simply see the ugliness in the other to avoid facing our own inner ugliness. And so we project into another what we would rather not face within ourselves.
The sacrament of Reconciliation is a gift given to us by Christ to soulfully face inner truths that are painful to face. Christ wants us to do this, not to fill us with guilt, but to be free see the goodness underneath the muck and mire that IS our true identity: a child of God! In turn, we “measure out” compassion and understanding on the one who needs mercy, no less than us.