Take care to examine your own conscience first.
Some considerations for the self-appointed, divinely-called inquisitors among us ... look for those defects in your own eye first.
DEFECTS OPPOSED TO SIMPLICITY
According to St. Thomas, simplicity is attached to the virtue of veracity, which puts truth into speech, gestures, manner of being and of living. Simplicity, in fact, is opposed to duplicity, by which we interiorly wish something other than what exteriorly we pretend.
A man wishes other people's money and pretends to render them service; in reality, he wishes to make use of them or of what belongs to them; or again, he wishes power and honors, and to obtain them pretends to serve his country; he pretends to be magnanimous, when in reality he is only ambitious. This defect of duplicity, which may become Machiavellianism or perfidy, inclines a man to be two-faced, according to the people he is addressing, like the Roman god Janus that was represented with two faces. A two-faced man pretends to be your friend, tells you that you are right, and he tells your adversaries that they are not wrong.
Duplicity inspires lies, simulation, which leads a man to make himself esteemed for something other than he is, hypocrisy, by which he affects a virtue, a piety which he does not have. It also inspires boasting, because one prefers appearance to reality; one seeks to appear rather than to be what one should. It also inspires raillery, which turns others into ridicule in order to lower them in their neighbor's esteem and to exalt oneself above them.
All these defects, which are frequent in the world, show by contrast the value of uprightness or veracity in life.
Veracity, a virtue attached to justice, leads a man to tell the truth always and to act in conformity with it. This does not mean that every truth should be told to everybody, sermonizing right and left and boasting of a frankness which borders on insolence or lack of respect.
It is indeed difficult at times, when faced with an indiscreet question, to keep a secret which has been entrusted to one and at the same time not to speak contrary to the truth. - Garrigou-Lagrange
It's interesting the pious atmosphere five dubia can lead to among the very, very fervent.
"Take care to examine your own conscience first"
ReplyDeleteI plan to do just that this coming Wednesday. I just booked myself to spend the day with the Carmelites Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart at their Retreat House in Alhambra, California from 9am to 3pm.
I am in need of the silence and the solitude lots. Father Jeremiah Shryock, C.F.R., will be preaching the conferences that day plus hearing confessions. Holy Hour and Mass is to be celebrated too.
I will remember you Terry and your blog readers in my prayers while there.
Thank you much Yaya!
DeleteI love tha Carmalites! Just began volunteering at a local hospice began over 30 years ago founded by a couple who are lay Carmalites. No expense to families available to terminally ill persons whose families cannot provide care. My Diocese has a cloistered house for nuns that nearly closed a few years back. The property in an upscale neighborhood nearly was auctioned to a developer for upscale housing. I attended the estate sale which was an interesting look inside. The grounds had a cemetery with tombstones over 100 years old. As I was reading some a family next to me were discussing how odd the whole place was. Each tombstone had the religious name followed by AKA and the Christian name. One of the children said," look they must have been criminals with an alias. " Well, at the last minute the property was saved by another out of town Carmalites community who needed a new home. We also have a community in our adjoining diocese who seem to be making it so far. I have an online relationship with a Community in Denver who make the most beautiful rosaries. I have purchased several for family. I think they maybe affiliated with St Pius X group. I love then no the less. I am sure you get away will be fruitful in that special place you are visiting. Please update us afterward. I like to go to our Trappist Monastery for Mass and retreats. Just today I told my wife it is time for me to escape there for a bit. She said, "what without me?" What a rich and beautiful Faith we have inherited. God's speed on your journey friend.
ReplyDeleteThanks, I am looking forward to going.
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