How can calumny improve your humility?

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Nelka

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In the litany of humility one line says from the fear of being calumniated; deliver me Jesus.

It kind of makes me think we should allow people to speak calumny against us rather than defending ourselves?
 
Not really.

It is the courage to stick to and tell the truth even if people accuse you falsely of evil.

Take for example the Church. The Church sticks to the sanctity of life from conception to natural death in spite of what pop culture currently believes.

It’s because of this that people spread lies about the Church, saying for example that the Church is highly misogynistic and does not care about women.

Its teaching that marriage is between one man and one woman along with the accusation of homophobia.

It is the willingness to speak the truth no matter what people may say about you.

In short putting more value in upholding the truth than in cultivating human respect.
 
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I think it’s more like sometimes we are so scared of being run down behind our back that we refrain from speaking out for the truth or doing the things we should.

The phrase is “from the fear of”. It’s not asking to be calumniated. So it’s more about our response than other people’s actions
 
Our example is Christ. He was mocked and ridiculed, people spoke all manner of evil against Him, yet He opened not His mouth. That level of humility is something that is a very long way up the spiritual “food chain” for me, for most people I know, but we all need to pray to, to strive to reach that place.
 
The Church allows her teachings speak for themselves. She does not respond to every article, every detractor, and when she does respond it is with the equivalent of “please refer yourself to XYZ”.

She waits 20, 50, 100 years before issuing documents on some topics.

We have to learn that we do not have to participate in every debate to which we are invited. We can stand and not respond.
 
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Lying about someone to try to make them look bad.

http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2477.htm

2477 Respect for the reputation of persons forbids every attitude and word likely to cause them unjust injury. He becomes guilty:
  • of rash judgment who, even tacitly, assumes as true, without sufficient foundation, the moral fault of a neighbor;
  • of detraction who, without objectively valid reason, discloses another’s faults and failings to persons who did not know them;
  • of calumny who, by remarks contrary to the truth, harms the reputation of others and gives occasion for false judgments concerning them.
 
0Scarlett_nidiyilii said:
I think it’s more like sometimes we are so scared of being run down behind our back that we refrain from speaking out for the truth or doing the things we should.
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Calumny is when someone lies about you, it is different than people saying “oh, he is talking about Jesus, isn’t he a nerd/freak”.

To fear calumny is to spend time worrying that someone might lie about you and wasting time trying to go around sitting the record straight.

We should live lives of virtue and honesty and love, our lives, our actions should stand on their own.

I try to live my life so that if someone goes to the Parish coffee and donuts and says “I saw TheLittleLady at the ‘we hate everyone’ rally and she was saying how much better she is than everyone else, then she hit on my husband!” the people who know me would not believe a word of it. I’d not need to go and convince them I am not a cheating bigot, I do not fear calumny anymore.
 
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“Nelka said:
In the litany of humility one line says from the fear of being calumniated; deliver me Jesus.

It kind of makes me think we should allow people to speak calumny against us rather than defending ourselves?sus
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very good question!

we dont really have any control over others, so it is not a matter of “allowing” them to co
mit this sin or not- they will do it if they choose.

If we do what Jesus commanded and always look to the log in our own eye first, any accusations made against us we can ask the Holy Spirit to show us if there is any validity to them and to help us be perfected in holiness.

If there is no validity to the accusations, the we have nothing to fear because our conduct is upright before God. Even if those who accuse us can do us great harm in this world (possibly unto death) we need not be afraid because He holds us in the palm of His hand.
 
Calumny - lies about you - is certainly a wrong done to you. Bearing wrongs with patience is one of the spiritual works of mercy. From Monsignor Peter J. Vaghi at Our Sunday Visitor:
  1. To bear wrongs patiently
The operative word here in this fifth spiritual work of mercy is
“patiently.” It comes from the Latin word petior which means to suffer
with someone, to place our feet in their shoes. Oh, how often have we
been the victims of another’s thoughtlessness or carelessness!
Our initial response should not be a merciless attack on that person
or even that group of individuals.

The merciful response is the continual effort to be less critical of
others, especially when they have wrongly or seemingly wrongly attacked
us. It requires giving others the benefit of the doubt, putting
ourselves in their shoes and trying to understand where they are coming
from or where they are going.

So often, we have no idea what others are suffering from or are
preoccupied with in their lives, what pain they are enduring. Yes,
bearing wrongs patiently means striving to be less critical of others.
The greatest response is putting those individuals and their
intentions on our prayer list. Prayer might be the only way to reach a
person who wrongly attacks us. It requires patience and love. The mercy
of God is assuredly His response to all our humble efforts at patience
endurance.
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I would say that it is maliciously trying to ruin a person’s reputation or life through lying or dishonesty. It is the most extreme form of libel or slander about a person.
 
Some posts are right.

Jesus was humiliated.

As followers of Christ we can expect to encounter trials, but rightly so as we are sinners.

However, there is a movement to “systemize” such activities against those who think they are rightly “rebuking sinners”.

Building a “system” is dangerous. These things are supposed to happen in due time, not according to some “organized plan” of a secret society.
 
I’m suffering it at work. The truth can’t get me in trouble so they lie. This man is a pastor of a non denom chyrch and uses that to make people think he is telling the truth. The managemeng live him and make special arrangements for him like not workinv sundays for four years and being allowed to come in late and choose his shifts.

I can’t belive he can be so callous, earlier this year someone tried getting him into trouble at work but he was saved by someone telling the truth and that someone was me.

This is going to destroy me even though these accusations are trivial ones.
 
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