O
OneSheep
Guest
Fr. Rohr’s daily meditation for March 20:
THE PATH OF DESCENT
The second temptation of Jesus is another one that all of us must face. Satan takes Jesus up to the pinnacle of the Temple, symbolizing the top of the religious world itself, and tells him to play “righteousness games” with God. “Throw yourself off and He’ll catch you” (Matthew 4:6). It’s the only time in the Bible where the devil quotes Scripture. Holy words can be used for evil purposes, it surely says. This second temptation is to think of yourself as saved, superior to others, the moral elite on the side of God and religion, and to quote arguable Scriptures for your own purpose—being against God in the name of God. Actually it is quite common.
As Mother Teresa loved to say, “We were not created to be successful [even spiritually successful!], but to be obedient.” True obedience to God won’t always make us look or feel right (that is why it takes faith!), so be careful before you stand on the pinnacle of any Temple, Scripture, or Sacrament. It is the common temptation of actually loving ourselves under the guise of loving God.
Adapted from Radical Grace: Daily Meditations, p. 295, day 309
I think we can all agree with the gist of Fr. Rohr’s writing here.
But I am thinking that there is another way of looking at this without condemning our own egos. I am not saying that condemning our egos is unproductive or bad in itself. Condemning our ego is a natural part of coming to know ourselves, i.e. “something drives me to be ‘selfish’, and whatever it is, it is bad!!”. In fact, condemning our own ego is an act of our own ego.
We learn that behaving pridefully is disobedient to God. If we respect God, we behave well for that reason. Eventually we see that acting on our own pride can be hurtful to others, so we refrain from certain behaviors on a different basis. Obedience becomes less of a guiding factor.
Pride is one of those human nature defaults, isn’t it? And given that it is part of our nature, God put it there, and it is a good thing.
Wait a minute now!! I hear an outcry as I write. Are you saying that we just let everyone be selfish and consider themselves superior?
Well… No, and Yes. When a person’s sense of “self” comes to include all of humanity, which happens through love and forgiveness, then “selfish” is a rather good thing, is it not? When a father demands that his child gets more play time at little league than the teammates, is he not still behaving “selfishly”, even though he is not directly benefiting? Imagine then, that everyone’s sense of self grows beyond our kin and our in-group, to include, instead, everyone. We could certainly wish for such a “selfish” mentality! So, in that sense, Yes. And, given that our world is growing older and more mature, on the average, this type of inclusive love is much more possible.
However, to be realistic, such a mentality is hard to achieve, and children are not capable. Until a child’s empathy is fully developed, they will not include others as part of themselves. They will naturally condemn some other people. They will see some people as “the good guys” and others as “the bad guys”, and hopefully they will obediently want to be part of the “good guys”. This works. So in this sense, no, I am not saying that people should be allowed to misbehave. We need to encourage obedience until they can use Love as the ultimate guide.
Once they have their behaviors under control, we can take them to the next level, we can teach them how to forgive. They will learn, in addition, that thinking of oneself as part of a moral elite is merely ignorance. It is not a “temptation” at all. When we think we are better than others, we are blind. When we try to do better for ourselves at the expense of others, we are acting out of blindness.
THE PATH OF DESCENT
The second temptation of Jesus is another one that all of us must face. Satan takes Jesus up to the pinnacle of the Temple, symbolizing the top of the religious world itself, and tells him to play “righteousness games” with God. “Throw yourself off and He’ll catch you” (Matthew 4:6). It’s the only time in the Bible where the devil quotes Scripture. Holy words can be used for evil purposes, it surely says. This second temptation is to think of yourself as saved, superior to others, the moral elite on the side of God and religion, and to quote arguable Scriptures for your own purpose—being against God in the name of God. Actually it is quite common.
As Mother Teresa loved to say, “We were not created to be successful [even spiritually successful!], but to be obedient.” True obedience to God won’t always make us look or feel right (that is why it takes faith!), so be careful before you stand on the pinnacle of any Temple, Scripture, or Sacrament. It is the common temptation of actually loving ourselves under the guise of loving God.
Adapted from Radical Grace: Daily Meditations, p. 295, day 309
I think we can all agree with the gist of Fr. Rohr’s writing here.
But I am thinking that there is another way of looking at this without condemning our own egos. I am not saying that condemning our egos is unproductive or bad in itself. Condemning our ego is a natural part of coming to know ourselves, i.e. “something drives me to be ‘selfish’, and whatever it is, it is bad!!”. In fact, condemning our own ego is an act of our own ego.
We learn that behaving pridefully is disobedient to God. If we respect God, we behave well for that reason. Eventually we see that acting on our own pride can be hurtful to others, so we refrain from certain behaviors on a different basis. Obedience becomes less of a guiding factor.
Pride is one of those human nature defaults, isn’t it? And given that it is part of our nature, God put it there, and it is a good thing.
Wait a minute now!! I hear an outcry as I write. Are you saying that we just let everyone be selfish and consider themselves superior?
Well… No, and Yes. When a person’s sense of “self” comes to include all of humanity, which happens through love and forgiveness, then “selfish” is a rather good thing, is it not? When a father demands that his child gets more play time at little league than the teammates, is he not still behaving “selfishly”, even though he is not directly benefiting? Imagine then, that everyone’s sense of self grows beyond our kin and our in-group, to include, instead, everyone. We could certainly wish for such a “selfish” mentality! So, in that sense, Yes. And, given that our world is growing older and more mature, on the average, this type of inclusive love is much more possible.
However, to be realistic, such a mentality is hard to achieve, and children are not capable. Until a child’s empathy is fully developed, they will not include others as part of themselves. They will naturally condemn some other people. They will see some people as “the good guys” and others as “the bad guys”, and hopefully they will obediently want to be part of the “good guys”. This works. So in this sense, no, I am not saying that people should be allowed to misbehave. We need to encourage obedience until they can use Love as the ultimate guide.
Once they have their behaviors under control, we can take them to the next level, we can teach them how to forgive. They will learn, in addition, that thinking of oneself as part of a moral elite is merely ignorance. It is not a “temptation” at all. When we think we are better than others, we are blind. When we try to do better for ourselves at the expense of others, we are acting out of blindness.
That carries a great risk of attributing our own ugly sins, habits, behaviors, etc. to God rather than our own choices. Hope that helps.
…maybe for keeps. 