"Charity thinketh no evil."
We are all surrounded by those of whose actions we are continual witnesses and of whose character we cannot help forming an opinion from their actions. We see what they do and listen to what they say and we not only receive a certain impression from them, but also are tempted to judge them and to pronounce on their moral value. Moreover, we are too prone to judge them unfavorably rather than favorably, to ascribe to them inferior motives and see faults in them where there are none or to exaggerate whatever defects may be found in them. This unhappily is my tendency. I cannot deny it.
Why is this? It is because I am so full of faults myself that I see many faults in others. It is the reflection of myself that I find so repulsive in them. I really attribute to them the very defects that in some form or other are to be found in me. It is because of my own want of charity that I judge them so harshly. How this ought to humble me, and how careful it ought to make me in my judgment of others.
How do men judge who are imbued with the spirit of charity? They think no evil. That is, they never attribute a bad motive to any action if it is susceptible of having been actuated by a good one. If the action is in itself bad, they somehow do not seem to notice it. They are so occupied with their own shortcomings that they do not observe those of others, and where the faults of others are forced on their notice, they search for some excuse or explanation. Is this my temper? Do I thus think no evil?
- text from Charity, Meditations for a Month by Father Richard Frederick Clarke, SJ