So begins the set-aside prayer.  To be able to appreciate myself, one another, the world, what I read, spiritual concepts, and God without judgment lends itself to spiritual awakening, revelation, answered prayer, and union with God and neighbor.  It is to be fully awake and free from the conditioning of my environment and the heredity of my human nature.  "Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage." Gal.5:1  The possibility of being made free rests entirely on the grace of God and my ability to be aware of the times  when I judge too quickly.  It is in practicing presence not judgment that enables me to stay free from the yoke of bondage.

Part of becoming awake and free resides on our ability to see how we are conditioned to react to things without thinking.  A prejudice runs along these lines.  A prejudice is a pre-judgment.  A pre-judgment is to reach a conclusion before one has all the facts.  It divides us and separates us from reality.  It is to make unequal, either better or worse.  For example, I meet someone for the first time and right away I begin to draw conclusions. "He’s too fat.  She's too tall.  He's very smart.  She is shy."  These are all conclusions and judgments we are making about the person, and it is on the basis of these judgments that we decide how we are going to treat, respond, and engage with that person.  We can profile, only associate with those people we categorize as worthy and we can discriminate both consciously and unconsciously.  By being aware of our conditioned response, we might be able to get past the judgment to love, appreciate, and be present to the person we meet, and open ourselves up to a deeper knowledge of that person and ourselves.  Jesus says it well.  "Judge not, lest ye be judged.  With whatever measure ye judge another by the same measure will ye be judged." Matt.7:1-2  That is a sobering thought.

Not only do we judge other people critically, we also, judge ourselves critically as well.   Our conscience is the judgment we use to assess the goodness and badness, and the rightness and the wrongness of our thoughts and actions.  It is one of our greatest aids to doing good and avoiding evil.  But to be scrupulously critical of ourselves, what we think and how we behave, leads to condemnation which Christ does not want us to have.  "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit." Rom.8:1  If we desire to be awake, if we desire to follow the Spirit and not the flesh, then we should not be so quick to judge or condemn ourselves.  By being mindful of our conditioning, mindful of our tendencies to judge, we will begin to live in the freedom of Christ and judgment will give way to presence and revelation and healing.  This is born out in scripture.  "How much more will the blood of Christ, who offered himself, blameless as He was, to God through the eternal Spirit, purify our conscience from dead works so that we can worship the living God." Heb.9:13-14  Our freedom resides with Christ to purify our conscience from dead works and the consequence of that freedom is our ability to worship God.
Our ability to gain a clear conscience has several benefits and also explains why so often our prayers go unanswered.

How many people do you know who would place fearlessness before God and answers to prayer in the conscience?  It was the position of St. Thomas Aquinas that the root of ignorance, hatred and division, loss of spiritual insight and tolerance was in reaching a judgment too soon.  John in this epistle tells us that a clear conscience opens the door to answered prayer, because we believe that God can make us holy and complete.  God can do for us and in us what we can not do for ourselves.  When we hear and read scriptures like "Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of God." Matt.5:20 or "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." Matt. 5:48 do we quickly judge that we can not do it?  Do we condemn ourselves calling to mind where we have failed?  Unless one suspends judgment, God can not make these and other scriptures like it come alive for us.  It is your conscience that judges your unworthiness and keeps you in bondage.  Only by reading these scriptures with an open mind can God make what is seemingly impossible, possible.  "It is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift God, not of works lest any man boast." Ephes.2:8-9 it is by grace and a mind free from scrupulosity which brings about the kingdom of God.  By judging others, yourself, and the word of God too quickly, we lose the openness to see the Truth and live a victorious life.  

Amen