On Judging Others (part 4)

Below are the final points by Frederick Faber on the topic of judging others (points 7 & 8), following the summaries of the first 6 points. If you want to see the first 6 points fleshed out, you can find them here, and here, and here.

1.  It is a universal law that when we judge others, whether individuals or multitudes, we come to erroneous conclusions from the mere fact that we naturally judge over-harshly.

2.  Severity is one of the natural accompaniments of a young and immature state of grace. 

3.  When we see evil in others, we never can see the amount of inward resistance which the person has given to the evil, or the amount of humiliation and sorrow which they may have for their own failures and defects. 

4. The evil in our fellows strikes us with bold startling proportions, whereas goodness is more quiet and hidden, and often passes unobserved...

5. Satan is active, but grace is more active.

6. We see the evil in our fellows much sooner than the good. 

7. In our opinions of others we fail to distinguish between the sinfulness of sin and the deformity which has resulted from sin...We judge people, not so much by how they stand to God as by the inconvenient or disagreeable way in which they may stand to us...This is why an impartial God must condemn us often for the condemnation we give to others, because our judgments do not proceed from the love of God but from personal taste.

8. Nothing is more amazing than the patient, gentle charity that God displays to His creatures. There is something adorable in the compassion of God for mankind which looks like a voluntary blindness to their evil...The Bible is full of instances of this in His dealings with both nations and individuals, where His justice seems to move with tortoise pace, constantly pursuing but seemingly on purpose to be a long while catching up with the one to be punished, as if to give him every allowance possible to infinite mercy...the more we are with God and the more deeply we drink of the interior sweetness of His life, the more we shall catch something of His gentleness and compassion of spirit which will destroy our proclivity for harsh judgments and take away the keenness by which we discover evil in others.  

This writing on judging others by Faber ends with these observations:
"Even where judgments are legitimate and unavoidable, we may lay it down as a rule that the severity of our judgments is an infallible index to the lowness of our spiritual state. Green sanctity is ever swift and sharp and thinks God is too lenient, and often acts as if His judgment throne wanted an occupant. Mature, mellow sanctity is always slow, gentle and compassionate, making allowances for others which it never feels justified in making for itself..."