“Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?” Scripture reminds us that, “the good seed are the children of the kingdom” and “the weeds are the children of the evil one.”  Which are you?  Are you a grain of wheat or are you a weed? Can you be trusted to make a good judgement without pride, prejudice, emotion or opinion?  I think how often I have misjudged a person, a situation, or something I thought I understood only to find out I was wrong – how often I misspoke, missed the mark, misjudged.  How do we respond in such moments and circumstances when we didn’t have the correct answer or the solution to the problem?  When we got in the way of letting the truth be revealed or we led someone in the wrong direction?  Did we say oops? Did we have the courage to say I am sorry or the strength to admit we were wrong?  We need humility to realize we can at times be blind, that we misjudge appearances, that at times we are unable to see the real truth. We really aren’t good judges of character, of people, of situations, of ourselves.  How many times have we misjudged distances, outcomes, conversations, time? Did you ever take an umbrella with you when it looked like rain only to experience sunshine throughout the day or decided not to take the umbrella only to experience a torrential down pour?  We are right some of the times, but not always.  If we could so simply misjudge a book by its cover, a gift by its wrapping, a person by their appearance – how easy would it be to misjudge ourselves, our abilities, our limitations, our senses, our perceptions, our judgments?  How easy would it be to misjudge if you are a grain of wheat or a bad seed? We might think that we are stronger than we really are, smarter than all the rest, better at what we do, faster than everyone else – only to find out we’re not.  We may conversely have a negative view of ourselves, be hard on ourselves, have a low self-image of ourselves and negate the true worth of our gifts, abilities, our life – only to find out that we are so wrong.  Only to find out that God really loves us very much. So don’t be a judge. Rather, be a saint and pray for the rest of us. “Whoever has ears ought to hear.”  Fr. Ivan