A Little Thought to Remember

I am reading a wonderful book called The 33 Doctors of the Church. It's a compilation of biographies of the 33 greatest scholars of the Church, and it's a wonderful read. I read an excerpt from Saint Robert Bellarmine who lived between 1542 and 1621, which was a critical time for the Catholic Church. He was a champion writer for the Church during this time, and he was very hurt by the sins committed within the Church itself. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about him right now, but there is a unique passage that he wrote that really speaks to me as I see society today -- for Christians and non-Christians. I think it's something that we can all learn from. Here goes:

"When two pieces of wood are placed together in the shape of an inverted 'V,' if each supports the other, both will stand; but if they do not, both fall to the ground. As this matter is one of such great consequence, try to look upon the defects of your companions as a kind of special medicine and a cross prepared for you by God. There are many people who willingly practice penances which they have chosen for themselves, but who refuse to put up with their neighbor's faults, though that is the penance which God wants them to bear..."

Let me try to break this down into today's words. Basically, he's saying that the only way that we can succeed as a neighbor, society, country.... whatever you want to make of it, is to accept each other for who we are and stop all the bickering and fighting. We all have our faults. None of us are exempt. None of us are perfect. The point where we think that our faults are better than our neighbor's faults is the point where we "fall" like the two pieces of wood that are not supporting each other.

Reading into what he's saying (only because I've read more of his work), he accepts that we are all faulty, and that is part of the human experience. He accepts that we all sin. That is part of the human experience. But for us to survive (he was actually referring to the Church as a whole, but it can be applied to society), we need to stop putting ourselves above our neighbor and start working together to support each other.

I find this especially true in our relationships. Bickering and fighting is nothing more than acknowledging a fault of your spouse while ignoring your own faults. The only way to come together is to recognize that it is each party's responsibility to bear the burden of the other's faults as that is the only way we can support each other. In other words, to accept each other for who we are.

If we look at the world today, what we see are all kinds of bickering, especially here in the United States between one special interest group and the other. All preach tolerance, but none have tolerance for each other. What they are doing is recognizing their own attributes but failing to accept the other party for their own attributes. This lack of tolerance for each other is what will ultimately destroy us.

Our true "penance" in humanity, whether you apply it to our personal relationships with friends or spouses, or you apply it between groups of people with opposing views, is that we need to accept each other for what we are instead of fighting each other for what we want to win. That is the ultimate goal of humanity.