Kempis on: Ourselves

 

Mathew 7:1-5

Jesus said to his disciples:
"Stop judging, that you may not be judged.
For as you judge, so will you be judged,
and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.
Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye,
but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?
How can you say to your brother,
'Let me remove that splinter from your eye,'
while the wooden beam is in your eye?
You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first;
then you will see clearly
to remove the splinter from your brother's eye."

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GUILTY! 

Yes, me, I am guilty!

I learned a new word. Vituperative. I was watching an interview, published a year ago, conducted by Matt Fraad of Pints with Aquinas. He was interviewing the two authors of the book “Calming the Storm”; written by Father Gerald Murray and Diane Montagna. Have you read it? (My wife has. It wasn’t readily available on Kindle so I have yet to read it.) It’s an interesting format where Ms. Montagna provides the questions, then answered by Father Murray. 

In this 2 hour interview the discussion happened upon how news and media outlets handle the chaos within the Catholic Church. There are so many Catholic podcasts that one may have, like me, a difficult time discerning which to listen to. The one outlet Ms. Montagna addressed, and refuses to participate in, is #CatholicTwitter. This is where Father interjected the word vituperative. It means, uttering or given to censure : containing or characterized by verbal abuse. 

I paused the video and took a great deal of time to reflect on his words. I wondered how many times I might have ‘liked’ and even replied, via Twitter and YouTube, on someone’s negative view of the Vatican. 

Yes, the Pope has caused some stirring in the Church with many statements that seem ambiguous and contrary to the teachings of Christ’s Church. Father Murray concurs. The problem within myself arises when I use particular words that may judge anyone’s actions, let alone the Pope. So I consulted Thomas Kempis to see if he might have anything to say about this.

Kempis:

WE must not rely too much upon ourselves, for grace and understanding are often lacking in us. We take others to task for small mistakes, and overlook greater ones in ourselves.

We are quick enough to feel and brood over the things we suffer from others, but we think nothing of how much others suffer from us. If a man would weigh his own deeds fully and rightly, he would find little cause to pass severe judgment on others.

You will never be devout of heart unless you are thus silent about the affairs of others and pay particular attention to yourself. If you attend wholly to God and yourself, you will be little disturbed by what you see about you.

If you wish to have true peace of mind and unity of purpose, you must cast all else aside and keep only yourself before your eyes.

Consider nothing great, nothing high, nothing pleasing, nothing acceptable, except God Himself or that which is of God. God alone, the eternal and infinite, satisfies all, bringing comfort to the soul and true joy to the body. (my emphasis)

(I knew he’d come through!)

Example 2: Politics

In my very humble opinion, politics will not get the United States out of the mess we’re in. With the current administration, the left feels things are just dandy, while they overlook the sin, corruption, violence and economics. On the other hand, if the right puts one of their own in the White House, there is no guarantee things will get much better, and certainly not quickly. The reason? We rely too much on ourselves. Each one of us, individually think we have the answers. Talk about vituperative language. We know how nasty it gets.

In each of the two examples, the Catholic Church and politics, the missing component is God. The Pope’s confidants are replacing Christ’s teachings in the upcoming Synod and our government has all but thrown God out on the streets. Even very well respected Catholic apologists have a tone of condemnation in their presentations at times. It seems politicians have nothing but. Both are wrong and I certainly have been guilty of the same. I need to fix this fast.

As noted above in the Kempis quote, “consider nothing great, nothing high, nothing pleasing, nothing acceptable, except God Himself or that which is of God.” We mortals need to grasp the concept of vainglory, which leads to pride. Pride leads to death. We can’t fix this by ourselves! We need to bring Jesus and Holy Scripture back to prominence.

Jesus encourages us to spend more time on our knees and less time on the soap box. Instead of judging, pray. Proselytizing is good, but only with charity in our hearts. (The intent has to be love, God’s Love as in love thy neighbor, love.) When I find it difficult to deal with the nonsense, I vehemently pray. He has always granted me relief. Matthew 11:28, Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” 

With God, all things are possible. Trust His timing.

2 Corinthians 2:14

Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness?

Kempis suggests we trust no man; believer or not. I listen to and consider all sides of the equation, but I ultimately turn to God for guidance… not man. To lessen myself from the temptation of judging, is to remove myself from influences that create the temptation. As Paul wrote above, to stay in the light I have to avoid the darkness.

God Bless you