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Judith 8:8 "No one spoke ill of [Judith], for she feared God with great devotion."

 

It is not always true that one who is devoted to God is spared from ill speech against her. Sometimes, the holier someone is or is trying to be, the more condemnation they seem to get. Those who fear God with great devotion are often considered worthy of contempt. Just look at Jesus, no one was more devoted to the Father, nor more despised by many.

 

Why this difference? I know what is being said of Judith can be true, there are times and places in which holy people are valued and revered. Judea at the time of Judith's story seems to be one of them. The Jews living there must still have been close enough to God to recognize holiness as a good thing. Since Judith was so devout, they valued her, and they did not speak ill of her.

 

But in other times in places, people have turned so far from God that holiness comes to be seen as an aberration; something strange, or even wrong, perhaps a front for hiding true wickedness. In these times, since "everyone is doing it" or at least tolerating it (the "it" being whatever pleases them, often sinful behavior), they cannot conceive of another who does not think as they think or act as they do, so they assume the holy person is hiding something, or they convince themselves the holy person is crazy, or has an ulterior, earthly motive. The thing is, though, they can't point to any true thing the holy person has done or said that is evil, they have to layer in their own interpretations, or they have to outright lie, in order to speak ill of the person, so that is what they do.

 

There are times when people value holiness and times when they mock or hate it. This should not matter to our pursuit of it, however. God always values and rewards holiness, and He is the only one a truly holy person is trying to please.