Imitation 1, 8 for 10^th Sunday A, June 9, 2002

When our Lord gave out the truism that the healthy have no need of the physician He identified Himself as the healer of infirm humanity. That everyone, no matter the degree of virtue he may have attained, is in a weakened state must be admitted. It is honesty; it is truth. Those who may make an attempt to deny their moral disability are self-deluded, wishful victims of positive thinking who cannot accept that original sin has left its scars on their souls. While we certainly ought not to be glum or self-pitying over our state, we should be realists who face squarely the truth of our situation. We are sinners all and stand in need of God’s mercy for sins we have freely consented to commit. And the healing medicine that alone can cure the evil tendencies of our fallen condition is the grace of Jesus Christ: humanity’s physician.

The futile exercise of excusing oneself of blame, of self-justification, is itself an indicator that there is something not right in us. Self-accusation, especially when there is no requirement making known one’s own faults, fights against us. We all want to be held in esteem by at least some people. We like to show our better side and to hide what is shameful. Moreover, everyone likes to receive compliments and recognition of some personal good or achievement. While self esteem is proclaimed a virtue in the religion of secularism, God pronounces it for what it is in reality: the viciousness of self-love. Self-love, self-esteem is nothing something we ought to seek and to increase; it is a cancer of the spirit that can kill all moral sensibility in a man. Self-love is at the root of many of our sins. While we can easily acquit ourselves of guilt, it takes a sometimes violent application of humility to correct the wayward tendency to deceive ourselves in thinking that all is well when we have sinned.

The proclamation of the creed where we say that Jesus dies for our sins is not only the recital of an historical fact about Him but the admission of a truth about ourselves. If He, the Son of God, died on the cross, it was because I did several things that needed atonement. I did these evil things, and I continue to do them because I am weak and evil is strong (although not as strong as God’s powerful grace!), and I freely agreed to act in ways that I knew were wrong and which I was capable of avoiding: I could have refused. This is what is meant by sin and it is necessary that I acknowledge the specific things I have done before the tribunal of Christ in the confessional. If he died to free me of the punishment for these sins while I refuse to admit that I have committed these sins, He will be a Judge to be feared. But as it is, He desires not the death of the sinner; He desires that he be converted and live. “I have come to call sinners,” he said; “I have come that they might have life.”

Maintaining a good operating condition for our souls requires also preventive maintenance. The Imitation of Christ is a book that has survived the centuries because it offers such valuable counsel in who to safeguard the precious gift of grace. In a brief chapter entitled, “On Guarding against Familiarity”, the wisdom there is to be prudent in associating with others. While we have to live in charity with all men, we ought not to be familiar with all. That is something that is easily confused in many minds on account of a mistaken idea of charity. To love all does not mean to befriend all. There are many whose company must be avoided: those who are an occasion of sin. But, even apart from the danger of sinful society, we are advised not to imitate the young in their lack of experience of what is good, permanent, useful. The company of those who are rich and important can also be the downfall of those who may easily want to flatter them. The wise thing recommended is that we should want to have the company of humble and simple people; of those who are devout and virtuous. We should want to talk about the kind of tings that help build up our spiritual lives and spur us on to higher things. Rather than seeking the pleasantries of idle conversation, we ought to desire to become better acquainted with God and his angels. (Now there’s a noble pursuit: making better friends with the angles instead of making more human contacts! Besides, we often, without knowing it, might be a real nuisance and offense to people we like to be with. We can never be shunned by the company of the saints and the angels, let alone by the Lord Himself.)

Let us stir up in us a good and holy desire to become people that would please Christ; people that we would want in His Company. He loves sinners who repent and desire to conquer their native sinful condition. He wants to make a whole multitude of friends and companions with whom He will speak, eat and drink, in His eternal kingdom. This will be the great circle of reformed sinners and former patients of the good doctor Jesus.