Pardon and Peace (Part 3)
Alfred Wilson C.P.
Nothing to Tell
(Concluded)
WHY WE MUST PUT OFF THE BLINKERS
1. Self-knowledge is necessary because self-deceit undermines peace of mind.
Self-deception, whether deliberate or indeliberate, is fatal to peace of soul. It is evident that our real motives do not cease to be there (anymore than an ostrich’s attackers cease to be there because it buries its head in the sand) because we chose to ignore them. Neither do they cease to influence us. We become blind to their influence - that is all. We work in the dark and become subject to all the terrors of the night. We do not know what we really want and therefore cannot satisfy our most real wants, and the result is a vague feeling of dissatisfaction and frustration. We are vaguely conscious of a sense of unrest, insincerity and unreality. Life seems to be cheating us, and we tend to become cynical and bored, and like the bad workman blame our tools, our neighbor, the clergy, the local administration – anything but the real culprit, ourselves. Civil war rages within us, we have conflicting wishes and desires, one part of our nature is at war with another, and because of our deliberate self-deception, we cannot recognize the adversaries, much less effect a reconciliation between them. The result is unhappiness, and the outcome may be dissipation, a vain attempt to escape the battleground, or morbid and excessive introspection. Probably we shall alternate between the two moods and become weather-cock personalities. In all our moods, we shall be fundamentally unhappy.
We must establish harmony between the conscious and the subconscious, if we want to maintain peace of soul. Subconscious motives of whose reality and influence we have a vague suspicion will continue to tantalize us until we bring them out into the open and subject them to control. Subconscious motives are like steam, useful if controlled; decidedly dangerous, if allowed to get out of control.
2. Self-knowledge is also necessary because self-deceits impedes growth in holiness, occasions loss of grace, and causes spiritual ineffectiveness.
Allers, speaking of sins and broken resolutions, says: “Of these we know sometimes; but there are others we never really know, though their presence is not absolutely hidden from us. There is the vanity which pervades all our actions, the egoism mixed up with all our most unselfish intentions, the pride which will boast secretly even of humility and sincerity, the ambition which is never satisfied by any success whatever, the unruly longing for praise, the ingrained tendency for envy – all those attributes of average human nature which are the powerful agents of most of our troubles”. The merit and value of our actions consists in our real purity of intention. It is of little avail to delude ourselves that we are acting solely for the love of God, if the real motivation of our actions springs from self-love. God is not deceived by our make-belief. “You are they who justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your hearts”. (Luke 16:15) Whilst our motives are a polyglot of vaguely recognized, instinctive self urges, we cannot act solely for God. And until we act solely for God, we cannot become saints nor make the best effective use of our time.
To control and subordinate our natural and inevitably selfish urges, we must first have the honesty and the courage to admit and face up to them. Until we face the facts, our love of God is bound to be, in part at least, more fictitious than real. It is not asserted, be it noted, that the element of vaguely conscious selfishness in our actions deprives them of all merit, but simply that it decreases their merit and make perfection impossible. If natural imperfections completely destroyed the merit of our actions, it would follow that no one could merit unless and until he became a saint; in fact not even then, since the saints are constantly finding in themselves new and unsuspected roots of selfishness.
Nothing to Tell
(Concluded)
WHY WE MUST PUT OFF THE BLINKERS
1. Self-knowledge is necessary because self-deceit undermines peace of mind.
Self-deception, whether deliberate or indeliberate, is fatal to peace of soul. It is evident that our real motives do not cease to be there (anymore than an ostrich’s attackers cease to be there because it buries its head in the sand) because we chose to ignore them. Neither do they cease to influence us. We become blind to their influence - that is all. We work in the dark and become subject to all the terrors of the night. We do not know what we really want and therefore cannot satisfy our most real wants, and the result is a vague feeling of dissatisfaction and frustration. We are vaguely conscious of a sense of unrest, insincerity and unreality. Life seems to be cheating us, and we tend to become cynical and bored, and like the bad workman blame our tools, our neighbor, the clergy, the local administration – anything but the real culprit, ourselves. Civil war rages within us, we have conflicting wishes and desires, one part of our nature is at war with another, and because of our deliberate self-deception, we cannot recognize the adversaries, much less effect a reconciliation between them. The result is unhappiness, and the outcome may be dissipation, a vain attempt to escape the battleground, or morbid and excessive introspection. Probably we shall alternate between the two moods and become weather-cock personalities. In all our moods, we shall be fundamentally unhappy.
We must establish harmony between the conscious and the subconscious, if we want to maintain peace of soul. Subconscious motives of whose reality and influence we have a vague suspicion will continue to tantalize us until we bring them out into the open and subject them to control. Subconscious motives are like steam, useful if controlled; decidedly dangerous, if allowed to get out of control.
2. Self-knowledge is also necessary because self-deceits impedes growth in holiness, occasions loss of grace, and causes spiritual ineffectiveness.
Allers, speaking of sins and broken resolutions, says: “Of these we know sometimes; but there are others we never really know, though their presence is not absolutely hidden from us. There is the vanity which pervades all our actions, the egoism mixed up with all our most unselfish intentions, the pride which will boast secretly even of humility and sincerity, the ambition which is never satisfied by any success whatever, the unruly longing for praise, the ingrained tendency for envy – all those attributes of average human nature which are the powerful agents of most of our troubles”. The merit and value of our actions consists in our real purity of intention. It is of little avail to delude ourselves that we are acting solely for the love of God, if the real motivation of our actions springs from self-love. God is not deceived by our make-belief. “You are they who justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your hearts”. (Luke 16:15) Whilst our motives are a polyglot of vaguely recognized, instinctive self urges, we cannot act solely for God. And until we act solely for God, we cannot become saints nor make the best effective use of our time.
To control and subordinate our natural and inevitably selfish urges, we must first have the honesty and the courage to admit and face up to them. Until we face the facts, our love of God is bound to be, in part at least, more fictitious than real. It is not asserted, be it noted, that the element of vaguely conscious selfishness in our actions deprives them of all merit, but simply that it decreases their merit and make perfection impossible. If natural imperfections completely destroyed the merit of our actions, it would follow that no one could merit unless and until he became a saint; in fact not even then, since the saints are constantly finding in themselves new and unsuspected roots of selfishness.
posted by G. Michaels at 12:14:00 PM
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