If you suppress your self-expression, if you muzzle the truth in you, if you forgo your rights or your opinions out of fear of consequences, of what people might say or think of you, of the prestige or position you might lose, if you wilt or abdicate under pressure - all this is bad: it is not being true to yourself, to the voice of truth resounding within you.
But if you silence yourself in order to be able to listen to others, if you step aside or step down out of honest respect for facts and for the human value of persons, out of compassionate and understanding of the inability of others to see things the way you do, why, this is great behaviour, the behaviour of a true disciple of Christ. Self-fulfilment and self-assertiveness is great, but Gospel behaviour is greater; it is divine; it is God's behaviour in human style. So, choose which you prefer: a psycho-model of behaviour of self-assertion all the time or a Gospel-model, i.e. self-assertion or self-suppression according to the imperatives of Truth and Charity/Love.
Jesus spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being virtuous and despised everyone else. 'Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood there and said this prayer to himself, "I thank you, God, that I am not grasping, unjust, adulterous like the rest of mankind and particularly that I am not like this tax collector here. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes on all I get." The tax collector stood some distance away, not daring even to raise his eyes to heaven; but he beat his breast and said, "God be merciful to me, a sinner". This man, I tell you, went home again at rights with God; the other did not. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled but the man who humbles himself will be exalted.' - Luke 18:9-14 -
A man's conduct may strike him as upright,
Yahweh, however, weighs the heart. - Prov. 21:2 -
He who conceals his faults will not prosper,
he who confesses and renounces them will find mercy. - Prov. 28:13 -
Be careful not to parade your good deeds before men to attract their notice; by doing this you will lose all reward from your Father in heaven. - Matt 6:1 -
'What is your opinion? A man had two sons. He went and said to the first, "My boy, you go and work in the vineyard today". He answered, "I will not go", but afterwards thought better of it and went. The man then went and said the same thing to the second who answered, "Certainly, sir", but did not go. Which of the two did the father's will?' 'The first' they said, Jesus said to them, I tell you solemnly, tax collectors and prostitutes are making their way into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you, a pattern of true righteousness but you did not believe him and yet the tax collectors and prostitutes did. Even after seeing that, you refused to think better of it and believe in him. - Matt. 21:28-32 -
Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You who are like whitewashed tombs that look handsome on the outside but inside are full of dead men bones and every kind of corruption. In the same way you appear to people from the outside like good honest men but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. - Matt. 23:27-28 -
BY REV. FR. J.B. FERNANDES, S.J.
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Sunday, May 24, 2009
I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!
I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.
HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -
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