“Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
"Balaam obeyed God from a sense of its being right to do so, but not from a desire to please Him, not from fear and love. His endeavour was, not to please God, but to please himself without displeasing God; to pursue his own ends as far as was consistent with his duty. In a word, he did not give his heart to God. I say plainly, and without fear of contradiction, though it is a serious thing to say, that the aim of most men esteemed conscientious and religious, or who are what is called honourable, upright men, is, to all appearance, not how to please God, but how to please themselves without displeasing Him. I say confidently,—that is, if we may judge of men in general by what we see— that they make this world the first object in their minds, and use religion as a corrective, a restraint, upon too much attachment to the world. They think that religion is a sort of moderate love of the world, a moderate luxury, a moderate avarice, a moderate ambition, and a moderate selfishness."
John Henry Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons IV, 2
"The problem Newman addresses here is with those long time believers who have grown in the faith, and may exhibit many of its gifts, but stop there without bearing the kind of fruit of which they are capable. And why do they do this? Simply because they never grow to fully love Him and His, more than they love their own fears, desires, and selves. They always hold some better portion of themselves back and in reserve. They love God as they think that they must only in order to avoid punishment and to be comfortable, while being blinded to their own sinful shortcomings, never fully growing into the love which is the substance and the salvation of their true selves.
And in the worst cases, they become self-righteous, being proud in their gifts and their selection as they think it in their own minds. They may even harbor private hatreds, sins against the Spirit, judging others and seeing admonitions to take up the cross of His obedience with love as intended for all those others, but not for themselves. They are imbued with the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy and spiritual pride. And it is the road to a dwindling of the spiritual life, and a gradual erosion of faith as a vital element of our every action.
Jesse, Obedience Without Love - The Leaven of the Pharisees, 5 April 2017
"He who refuses to pass through the door of My mercy must pass through the door of My justice."
Maria Faustyna Kowalska
Only the truly proud, those made hardened and delusional by sin, would see no problem in choosing the door of His justice, thinking themselves to be relatively worthy and saved, compared to all those 'others.'
They refuse His mercy, as they have chosen not to be merciful to others.
And they will call out, 'Lord, Lord,' and be sent away into the darkness.
You want to argue canon law and economics with the Lord of hosts?
"If only I had known..."
Do not be one of them.
And so stocks were swooning most of the day, but managed to gather themselves together and rally back to nearly unchanged into the close, after the rest of the world had gone to bed.
Gold and silver were nailed in some follow up action to the events of last week.
VIX came in high and fell hard.
The Dollar rallied on expectations of American exceptionalism.
I think our leaders have become proud and reckless to a remarkable degree, and many are led by their example. Not just here, but around the world.
I spent a satisfying day exploring the mysteries of my oil burner. I knew it was burning rich on start up but could not tell why. But it would sense that and shut down sporadically and require a manual restart.
The old hand tech quickly figured it out and replaced the ignition electrode components. Considering they were original equipment from the 1950s, I won't complain. And the cost was remarkably reasonable all things considered.
So my eyes and the furnace are now in tip top shape. What a great start to the week.
Now if only we could do something about those madcaps and self-righteous knuckle-draggers in Washington.
Have a pleasant evening.
