All of us are undergoing a process of judgment in this life. Jesus is reminding us that we are all being prepared for the future judgment. What Jesus teaches us is to be first, self-critical (something which is hard to do because of our sinful tendency to self-deception), and then to avoid, what he describes as self-righteous censoriousness.

Our vision to love is given to us by Jesus who taught that the first and greatest commandment was to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and the second is like it - to love our neighbor as ourselves. "The deepest truth about ourselves is that we are created for communion with God, with one another, and with the whole Creation.

The minister dreamed that the doorbell rang and that a messenger asked him to visit a friend's poor, dying mother. He reached her home, and as his friend sat and wept, he said, "I have something here that will comfort you." He opened his Bible to look for a familiar promise, but it ended with Malachi.

They keep confidences. They care for us and we for them. We love them and they us.

God has made us in his image to relate at deep levels to others. Jesus wants us to be his friend and has revealed that same longing from God. God loves us and wants us to love him. God cares for us and we for him. We bring to God our failures, our mistakes, our sins, our shortcomings, as well as our joys and thanksgivings. We bring to God our worries and concerns.