Self-appraisal is a necessary path to holiness

By Mary Regina Morrell
Catholic Online

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Luke 18:9-14

Today I decided I needed to do some work that would be mindless, something that would distract my busy mind without wasting a whole afternoon doing nothing.

So I decided to clean my bathroom cabinet. After a few minutes of pulling out a variety of body lotions, I was reminded that shopping requires enough discipline to avoid impulse buying because I am, like so many others, attracted by packaging. The stuff that catches your eye is usually the stuff you end up taking home, and just as often the stuff you end up throwing away.

In the world of writing, headlines serve like packaging, and during a recent scan of the Web I was quickly drawn in by the following headline: "What To Do, When the Pharisee is You."

Wow, I thought. That has the potential of being a spiritual bombshell, and would make a great retreat reflection for those brave enough to consider it. Its fruitfulness, however, would require that a person first acknowledge that they do, or have the potential to, behave like the Pharisee who prayed, "God, I thank you that I am not like other men..."

I looked at the headline for a few seconds. Should I open it? Did I want to know the insights it contained? Once read, was it something that would sit on the shelf and later be thrown out, like the bottles in the garbage bag I had just put out? Or was this something that would really be used to make a significant difference in my spiritual life?

It is so very hard to examine our own lives with real honesty and to admit those times when we have not been kingdom-builders, when our words or actions or ways of thinking have damaged our relationships with others, when we have blown out their flame so ours could burn brighter and left them feeling less than they really are - beloved children of God. We have the amazing potential to heal, simply by loving others, and the awful potential to wound, especially by being self-centered.

On the other side of the coin, we sometimes get caught up in our shortcomings, seeing only the negative, looking at ourselves only through the lens of sinfulness and denying the inherent beauty that is ours by virtue of our Creator.

What is needed is balance.

According to Rev. Ken Collins, who penned the headline and related article, "For those who serve God, an accurate self-image is more important than either a positive or a negative one, because if we esteem ourselves wrongly, it clouds our relationship with God. If we think too highly of ourselves, we delude ourselves into thinking we do not need God or that we are responsible for the blessings in our lives. If we think too lowly of ourselves, then we delude ourselves into thinking that we are too unworthy; a hopeless case that even the Great Physician cannot cure. An accurate self-assessment leads us to acknowledge and deal with our darker nature, and because God accepts us, we can accept ourselves."

St. Francis De Sales, so understanding of the human condition, said it best: "Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections, but instantly set about remedying them -- every day begin the task anew ."

Contact

Diocese of Metuchen
http://www.diometuchen.org NJ, US
Mary Regina Morrell - Associate Director, Office of Religious Educationp, 732 562.1990

Email

mmorrell@diometuchen.org

Keywords

self-appraisal, holiness,

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