faith formation: What is Love? Love is Not Proud post 5

 

We are continuing our meditation on St. Paul's definition of Love. We have covered patience, and tackled kindness ; we thought about envy. and consider boastfulness. Not let us look at pride.


1 Corinthians 13:4-7

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."


We could write a whole book on the topic of pride, and many have. We just want to take a brief look to help us love better.

St. Chrysostom says pride is a disease:

“...whoever is inflamed and puffed up, he must be the diseased one; for he is swollen above the proportion of the rest.” https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/220112.htm

Other translations say instead of “not proud” that love is “not puffed up." Pride is a spiritual illness.

faith formation: Fr. Goring, How to be Happy

Amazing World: Boy Genius

 This boy now a man, has an incredible gift of being able to do complicated math in his head. He can learn a new language in a week.

faith formation: Love Letters to God

 I've been a little busy lately. So I haven't had a chance to continue with a few posts. One on St. Paul's definition of Love and the continuing history of the early Church.

But I thought this short sermon of Fr. Goring was great and to the point.

He spoke about songs as love letters to God. It is true and here in the USA we have a famous Christian pop music station called K-Love. They play Christian Pop Music. It is very good.

Here is some examples I think are great pop Christian songs.

Amazing World: This SECRET Will DOUBLE Your Learning SPEED!

 Jim Kwik is a motivational and memory expert. Very inspiring story.

Deposit of the Faith: Introduction to Patristic Exegesis

Deposit of the Faith: History of English Bible Translations

 

faith formation: Being Transformed by the Gospel -- Kerygma

 

faith formation: What is Love? Love Does Not Boast -- post 4

 

We are continuing our meditation on St. Paul's definition of Love. We have covered patience, and tackled kindness , we thought about envy. Now we consider boastfulness.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

Boasting is extolling oneself, usually in words. Boasting is opposed to truth, by way of excess, when one boasts of what one has but in excess, or by way of what one does not have, which is a lie. (Proverbs 28:25): "He that boasts, and puffs himself up, stirs up quarrels." 

There are two forms of boasting, one is to create the illusion in one's own mind of your greatness. The second is to create a deception of your greatness in the minds of  others. (2 Corinthians 12:5): ” I will not boast about myself, except to tell you of my humiliations.” 

Even if your boasting comes from a fear of being inferior.  This boasting still springs from vainglory and pride.  If we are inferior to others that can be reality, at least at that moment. And so what? We are what we are in God's eyes. What others think does not make us better or worse. One's desire for self importance comes from pride and vainglory, and lacks humility. Marcus Aurelius wrote in his Meditations: "Do you wish to be praised by a man who curses himself thrice every hour?" Often people's criticisms are an extension of their own insecurities.

The humble person does not seek honor. Boasting seeks honors or sometimes gain. It can seek gain in money by boasting of how great an investment is, and having people invest under this delusion. It could also be used by suitors looking for a spouse. Boasting of their virtues or their riches and by so doing win the person's love. Proverbs 27:2: "Let someone else praise you, not your own mouth–a stranger, not your own lips."

Boasting can also come in group forms: boasting of one's family, or community, ethnic group, or country. This usually springs from the desire of belittling other groups, and a lack of love of one’s family as they are in reality. By boasting, we love a family that doesn’t exist, we are embarrassed by our real family as it is.

While love of your family or country can be a virtue, virtue is found in the mean (middle) not in the excess, which boasting is by definition. We can feel a sense of pride in real accomplishments, but not at the expense of truth or desire to humiliate.

Boasting is opposed to Love because it is selfish and a lie, seeking one’s own glory and not God’s first.

we will continue with love is not proud.

Founding of Christendom: The Apologists -- post 17

The Apologists

After the martyrdom of Ignatius in Rome the Church both mourned and rejoiced for such a man. They waited to see if more persecution would come?

Trajan seemed more concerned with his legacy than with Christians. He continued his campaign in the Middle East, for another two years, after his success in Armenia. He conquered most of Mesopotamia all the way to Iran. But it was a series of costly and unstable victories. He may have caught some illness or suffered from heat exhaustion because he soon died on the voyage back to Rome.

Hadrian was the successor to Trajan. Hadrian (76-136 AD) was a cautious man and no general. He reigned for a pretty long 21 years and seemed to have died of natural causes. He lost the lands to the east recently acquired by Trajan.

Amazing World: A Millionaire Pretended to be Poor to Find a Wife

 This a story fairy tale story. It is also a parable. God wants us to love Him not for what He can give us but for who He is. Will we still love God when things go bad? It is difficult but this is the test that God uses to purify our love.

Deposit of the Faith: The Unity of the Church

 

faith formation: Trilogy of Spiritual Classics - Fr. Mark Goring, CC

 

In addition to the books endorsed by the good father, above, may we suggest Alphonsus de Liguori's  very short classic. This is especially good for those in challenging marriages, or other difficult circumstances:

from ccel.org

"Written in 1755, Uniformity with God's Will is a wonderful little treatise on the true love of God. Saint Alphonsus de Liguori writes to encourage believers to unify their wills with that of God's, so that they may love God perfectly: "the more one unites his will with the divine will, the greater will be his love of God."

To choose otherwise--i.e. to choose not to unify one's will with God's--is "a kind of idolatry." These seven short chapters, not simply prone to abstract speculation, explore concretely how to make one's own will uniform with God's through the hardships of this life.

Further, the book discusses the fruit of such a union with God's will: happiness.

De Liguori concludes by noting how, in all things, Christians must remain steadfast in their union with God's will. For in so doing, God will "press us to his heart." Challenging and encouraging, Uniformity with God's Will has the power to remind us of what true love of God really is. "
 by Tim Perrine
CCEL Staff Writer

Link to the book online:  PDF or audio

faith formation: What is Love? It Does Not Envy -- post 3

We are continuing our meditation on St. Paul's definition of Love. We have covered patience, and tackled kindness . Now let us think about envy.

    1 Corinthians 13:4-74

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

Envy consists of sadness or grief at another's success, and by their good name and esteem increasing.  Envy is related to the Ten Commandments, specifically, "Neither shall you covet ... anything that belongs to your neighbour"—this commandment belongs to greed but may be associated with envy. In this case, it is the esteemed reputation owned by another.

[cf. Envy-- Summa--Secunda Secundae Partis, Q. 36, https://www.newadvent.org/summa/3036.htm#article4 ]

Dante in his Divine Comedy writes one of the envious souls on the terrace says:

"My blood was so afire with envy that,
when I had seen a man becoming happy,
the lividness in me was plain to see"
[Purgatorio, Canto XIV, lines 82–84]

The envious man hates the happiness and success of others; it springs from the pride of vainglory.  (Galatians 5:26): "Let us not be made desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another."