There are times when Jesus is abundantly clear, and times when it requires more effort to really understand what he is trying to share with us. 

Here is one teaching which has an abundance of clarity: “Do not judge.” (Matthew 7:1)

When we judge others, what does that say about us? Saint Nicholas of Tolentino chose not to judge others, and his life spoke volumes.

Nicholas was born on the Italian island of Sant'Angelo in 1245. When he turned 18, he traveled to the mainland to become an Augustinian monk. Immediately, he began ministering to criminals and to the poor, making sure they had enough to eat and giving them spiritual counsel. 

One day, Nicholas had a mystical experience in which he heard a choir of angels singing, “To Tolentino, to Tolentino!” God was calling Nicholas to travel to Tolentino, a city in Northern Italy experiencing great moral decline. Again, Nicholas began serving criminals and the poor with a non judgemental heart. His kind and gentle manner led his superiors to entrust him with the daily feeding of the poor at the monastery gates. His generosity was so lavish that the monastery’s treasurer begged his superior to make Nicholas stop giving away so much.

Saint Nicholas of Tolentino worked with those society judges harshly, but chose to see them all as beloved children of God.

Let’s return to the question we posed earlier: When we judge others, what does that say about us?

The first thing it says is that we are lazy, because judging is a short cut. It requires very little thinking, and it requires almost no emotional intelligence. 

Our brains are wired to make quick judgements so that we can move through this world and not get crippled by every situation that captures our attention. But people are not situations, and they are not things. Each person is mind-bogglingly unique if we pause long enough to experience that person. 

Jesus wants us to go beyond the laziness and injustice of judgment to see and experience the whole person. He wants us to access our capacity for empathy, patience, and understanding. Today is an invitation to see people for who they really are, not through the lens of self, not through the lens of our insecurities, but through the lens of acceptance.



Feast Day: September 10

Patron Saint of: Animals, Babies, Boatmen, Dying People, Sailors, and the Souls In Purgatory

Symbols: Holding Bread

Canonized: Pope Eugene IV

Canonized By: June 5, 1446