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If my heart, O God, is so full of my self, how shall I admit another there. Save me from self-preoccupation. Release the captives of my heart that bind me to my self, that I might, like the Blessed Christ, welcome everyone there.
A pastor went to visit his spiritual director. The pastor spoke to her, "The members of my congregation are contentious, and I seem unable to get them to live together in peace. What do you recommend I do to get them to live together in peace?" She replied, "Become convinced that you cannot get them to live together in peace."
St. Symeon the New Theologian (942-1022) speaks of peacemaking, referring to St. John 5.41. Jesus says to those opposing him, "I do not take any honor from men" (ESV). St. Symeon notes St. John 12.24. This passage is about Jewish leaders who believed in Jesus but kept it secret, fearing the Pharisees would bar them from the Jewish synagogue: "They loved to have the respect from men more than honor from God" (NLT).
St. Symeon posits the question: "Is there anyone who loves the glory and the honor that come from man ... who will ever regard himself as the last and the most worthless of all? Will he ever become humble in spirit, contrite in heart?" And, "How shall one become a peacemaker who has estranged himself from God?"
A woman sat in class. She spoke of not liking the confessions of sin in our hymnal. She said she had been exposed to enough of that in the Christian communion of her upbringing, which she felt placed a morbid emphasis on sin.
Possibly, much contention among Christians and within churches results from not taking more seriously what St. Symeon, and all great teachers of the Church, have taught us. Humbleness and contrition seem lost virtues in many churches, and even among many of the clergy. This attitude of self-abasement and sorrow for sin is part of what the great Teachers called ascesis, that attitude of asceticism, or self-restraint, essential to growing in Christlikeness and living in harmony with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
There will be no flowering of true peace in Christian fellowships--though we may put up a fragile facade of toleration--, unless we nurture the inner virtue leading us to detach from preoccupation with opinions of other persons regarding us. We must practice turning to the Triune Presence as the sole, final source of honor. Certainly, honor can pass from the Divine through our brothers and sisters, to encourage us in our Christian formation and service. We must never see the source of honor, however, as from any person. Then, in practicing contrition, daily communion with the Indwelling Triune Mystery, and nonreliance for honor from any person, we can live together in true peace, genuine fellowship. I am most ready to live in peace with you, when I am not reliant on you for honor, but receive that from the One who calls us to live in harmony; meaning, love, joy, and peace.
Spiritual Exercise
Prayerfully meditate on the following Scripture, Philippians 2.2-4 (NLT)to discern its message for you in your relationships with other persons...
Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one heart and purpose. Don't be selfish; don't live to make a good impression on others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself. Don't think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing.
*References to St. Symeon are from St. Symeon the New Theologian: The Discourses, Trans. C.J. De Catanzaro,"The Classics of Western Spirituality.
**OneLife writings are offered by Brian K. Wilcox, a United Methodist pastor serving in the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. He writes in the spirit of John Wesley's focus on the priority of inner experience of the Triune God; scriptural holiness; ongoing sanctification; the goal of Christian perfection (or, wholeness). Brian lives a vowed contemplative life with his two dogs, Bandit Ty and St. Francis, in North Florida. OneLife writings are for anyone seeking to live and share love, joy, and peace in the world and in devotion to God as she or he best understands God.
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