People are Democrats because it seems right to them to be Democrats.

Wednesday, 9/18/13

  

In the Gospel Jesus remarked on people’s tendency to criticize everyone but themselves. They criticized John the Baptist for being an ascetic who liked living on the ground and eating insect. “Ugh, he is so inhuman!” 

On the other hand, they criticized Jesus for being too human. They asked, “What kind of a holy man accepts dinner invitations, eating and drinking what’s put before him?”

Jesus laughingly compared such people to idle children wasting their days at a favorite spot in the marketplace where they played imaginary musical instruments. They would order passersby’s to dance when they tooted a merry tune. They would order them to weep when they groaned out what sounded like a funeral dirge. 

There were other words of his that Jesus might have used to sum up what he was saying here. He could have said, “Judge not that you be not judged.”

We should always be ready to apply the second of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit: the Gift of Understanding. If we are gifted with Understanding, we will realize that everyone acts for what seems to be good. It is as automatic as the Law of Gravity that makes loose objects fall: a  person always goes  for what seems good at the time. People should not be blamed for being Democrats. You must believe that they are Democrats because it seems right to them.