The author brings up a good point about Christian charity. If you do good, others will probably say nasty things about you to feel better. Then when you lash out at them, they feel justified at the nasty things they said. It’s a vicious cycle and the buck stops at Christianity.
However, it is also a gift of humility to not take oneself too seriously. Many of the saints learned to laugh at themselves, hard lesson though it may be. While on earth, we are not perfect. Once we can laugh at ourselves, we may never stop laughing.
I remember one knock-down-drag-out fight with household sisters. Several were in tears, our leader stormed out with a blood curdling scream, and I went into the hallway to calm down. Our leader returned, spritzed us all with holy water and we all inexplicably started to laugh for several minutes with all the tension gone. The misunderstanding was quickly cleared and to this day we all laugh about being spritzed with holy water.
I’m not saying that one ought to backpedal from important issues, but when others insult you and you lash back- are you defending your God or your pride?
