SELF- RENUNCIATION:

I rarely will reread a book. But the wisdom that Fenelon has given us in his dialogues I will read for the rest of my life. This chapter on Self-renunciation was particularly sharp this morning.

 

SELF- RENUNCIATION

THE ONLY WAY TO PEACE.

 

SO long as we dwell within

ourselves, we shall be a prey

to the opposition, the malignity, the

injustice of men. Our temper brings

us into collision with other tempers;

our passions clash with those of our

neighbors; our wishes are so many

tender places open to the shaft s of those

around; our pride, which is incompatible

with our neighbors’, rises like the waves

of a stormy sea;—everything rouses,

attacks, rebuff s us. We are exposed on

all sides by reason of the sensitiveness

of our passions and the jealousy of

our pride. No peace is to be looked for

within when one lives at the mercy of a

crowd of greedy and insatiable desires,

and when we can never satisfy this “me”

which is so keen and so touchy as to

whatever concerns it.

Hence in our intercourse with others

we are like invalids who have been

long confi ned to the bed, who cannot

be touched anywhere without pain.

A sickly self-love, full of pity for itself,

cannot be touched without screaming.

Touch it with the end of your fi nger, and

it thinks itself fl ayed alive. Th en add to

this sensitiveness the roughness of other

people, full of imperfections unknown

to themselves, their disgust at our

defects (at least as great as ours toward

theirs), and you fi nd all the children of

Adam tormenting one another; half of

mankind made unhappy by the other

half, and rendering them miserable in

their turn.

Th e only remedy is to come out of

one’s self in order to fi nd peace. We

must renounce ourselves, and lose all

self-interest, that we may no longer have

anything to lose, to fear, or to contrive.

Then we shall enjoy the true peace

reserved for “men of good will”; that is,

for those who have no longer any will

but God’s, which becomes theirs. Then

men will not be able to harm us; they

can no longer attack us through our

hopes or our fears; then we are willing

to accept everything, and we refuse

nothing.

We may be worried, inconvenienced,

distressed; but God causes it, and that is

enough. We love the Hand which smites;

we fi nd peace in all these troubles,—

happy peace, which follows us even to

the cross! We wish what we have; we

wish nothing of what we have not. Th e

more perfect is our self-surrender, the

more perfect is our peace.

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and

beloved, compassion, kindness, humility,

meekness, and patience, bearing with one

another and, if one has a complaint against

another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has

forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And

above all these put on love, which binds everything

together in perfect harmony. And

let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to

which indeed you were called in one body.

And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell

in you richly, teaching and admonishing one

another in all wisdom, singing psalms and

hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness

in your hearts to God.

Colossians 3:12-16