When that beautiful woman and her two children came to dwell in that house, all the attention of the neighbours was on them. Whenever they peeped into that house, they saw the woman always engaged in reading some books; all the chores were done by her children.
“Oh, What a woman! She is not doing the chores because she doesn’t want to lose her beauty!” One of the neighbours passed the verdict.
They continued to peep into that house. One day, they saw a young man visiting that house; he used to visit that house every week. Every time the young man visited her house, the woman used to get up and go into an inner room and the doors and window of the house would shut. When this began to occur regularly, the neighbours passed judgement: “She is doing adultery with that young man! She is a bad woman.” Soon, they learned one more thing: The woman has no husband. Now they confirmed their guess: This is sheer adultery!
One morning, they woke up hearing the wailing of her children. They ran to her house. The sight was shocking. The beautiful woman lay there dead. Her children were weeping, calling out to their mother. Without much delay, the young man also arrived. He examined her nerves and sobbed: “Oh my dear sister!” Then her children tearfully hugged him and said: “Uncle!”
Actually, that beautiful woman was suffering from a serious illness. She came to this alien land with the purpose of availing a better treatment. Her children did the chores because she did not have the health to do them. The regular visitor to her home was actually her brother. He was a doctor too. He was the sole solace to that woman.
This story is borrowed from the book titled ‘Mirrors of the Heart’ written by Hedwig Lewis SJ.
Often, we are not different from these ‘neighbours’. We judge persons and events based on our thoughts and guesses. Often we make blind judgements. They will be far from the truth.
We are, in fact, imposing our own wrong thoughts and impressions on the other. That is why we find fault when we see a woman talking with a man. When we see a man lying on the road out of giddiness, we will pass judgement that he is drunk. When a girl hasn’t returned home at her usual time, we will say she had eloped with some man. Many such things happen around us.
Make a decision today not to judge others unnecessarily and unfairly. Who knows the truth? Don’t fall into rash and impetuous judgements and guesses. What will you do if it is proven wrong in the future?
