Zechariah 7:8-14. God tells Zechariah to tell the people to "Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to [each other], do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart." But the people refused to listen. They turned a stubborn shoulder, they plugged their ears, they hardened their hearts "lest they should hear the law" and the words of the Lord. Therefore, a great wrath came from the Lord and his people were scattered among foreign nations while their land became desolate.

This is the same story again, God calls his people to repentance when they are going astray, they refuse to listen, in fact they become worse by hardening their hearts and clinging to their sin, God therefore allows them to feel the consequences of their sin and the land where God dwells with his people becomes desolate. It will not remain that way. Eventually, God will lead them back, when they are ready to listen, and the people will live in an abundant land once again with God protecting and loving them.

The homily today at Mass was about how we are not to judge one another, but leave that to God. That is absolutely true and right - Jesus tells us that over and over again. We are, however, to make true judgments, as the first line of God's message to his people here makes clear. What is the difference? Well, for one thing, we cannot live in this fallen world the way that God wants us to without judging between good and evil. They are both realities, and in fact, evil has the upper hand here on earth. So we must open our eyes, and seek the truth in order to make true judgments as God commands. When we are facing temptation, or a person who may be leading us astray, or situation that may cause us to sin, we have to know what God's law is and apply it justly to the situation. This may mean suffering some loss - we may lose friends, or family members, or a job, but it will make all the difference to our salvation! 

This does not mean that we are to judge people - that is, we are not to determine in our hearts or in our heads we know or believe that any individual person is deserving of heaven or hell. We cannot do that, only God knows their hearts and only he can judge them, and we know that everyone deserves heaven, that is what God wants for everyone. But we are responsible for ourselves, we must make judgments to avoid our own sin.

So this call to true judgments is an acknowledgment that in fact we are all sinners, and our tendency to sin might be inflamed by a certain situation, tendency, job, or even a certain person. In such a case, we have to preserve ourselves from the "near occasions of sin."