In a previous post I commented on the problem of marriage and the need to view the day-to-day sacrifices within our relationships as being connected to the cross of Jesus. There is another side to this perspective that we must also keep in mind, especially in the interest of humility. St. Augustine attacked a related subject from this perspective in his City of God. In the middle of the 1st Book, Augustine discusses the problem of a barbarian attack and the rape of some dedicated virgins. The impulse of these virgins, influenced by Roman and Greek values was to somehow redress the situation through suicide. They had been violated, and that could never be undone. Augustine's sagacious argument is that such a suicide would itself be wrong, due to the fact that the victim – the virgin herself – is an innocent person. Physical virginity can be taken away, but the spiritual virginity remains.
I am not sure that a modern audience can really get the seriousness of the issue on an instinctive level [in support of this claim: the works of Sarah Jessica Parker (please do not follow this link)], so let me try to explain: To the violated person, the impulse to suicide could be considered reasonable in that an essential aspect of the virgin's identity, namely virginity, has been destroyed in a literal sense. At another level, in considering this reaction, the would-be virgin is not defending the value of chastity, but succumbing to a subtle version of the sin of pride.
The virgin lives to commit her virginity to God. This is a beautiful and glorious thing. Those who have eyes to see it can truly appreciate the inspiration of such a sacrifice. But what if this sacrifice is taken away? What if in the eyes of others you have lost that perfect gift that you were proud to offer to God? Augustine points to an even greater opportunity to glorify God in losing this first opportunity. Is it a beautiful thing to offer one's life to God through chastity and celibacy? Of course it is. But these things are not the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is a giving of the self to God. This goes far beyond any specific sacrifice we might be called to make, even if we in some way identify ourselves through that sacrifice.
Humility in our acts of faith to God requires us to make such unexpected sacrifices (or perhaps we could call them "meta-sacrifices?"--a sacrifice of a sacrifice). Pride comes in when we believe our own sacrifices are so significant that we practically become our own saviors. There was one necessary sacrifice – Jesus taking up his cross and dying on the hill of Calvary. Our own sacrifices are connected with this great sacrifice, but cannot be allowed to overshadow it in our personal lives. I have found for myself that the more I focus on how much I am sacrificing at a particular moment, the less it helps me grow closer to the true Savior.
Ecclesiastes points out, "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity." Let not our own sacrifices become a vanity, but "let him who boasts, boast in the Lord."
Thanks for the post, Rob. Appreciate your thoughts. Love the idea of meta-sacrifices aimed at preempting the insidious nature of pride, pride that takes even virtue as its object. I have a small and slightly silly example of this. I recall my brother talking to another young fellow who had decided to give up pop for a year as some kind of fast. The conversation came up because we were quickly approaching the New Year and friends were giving him suggestions on what he should have first. My brother, wise as he is, recommended that he should drink a pop yet on New Year's Eve, so that he could sacrifice even the opportunity for pride. Of course, the intentional nature of that act would perhaps obscure the value and provide one more opportunity for insidious pride to invade. Your example of sacrifice was unexpected and certainly unintended. But I appreciated his thought process.
ReplyDeleteI like that story very much! Obviously, motives are a big factor (perhaps the only factor) in judging the action ultimately. On the other hand, second guessing our positive motives is a game mastered by Satan, the Accuser, with the goal of making us so neurotic that we never do good things for fear that we will somehow be doing them for bad reasons. Practically every good thing I have done in my life I have done on the basis of less than perfect motives, but I dare say I am glad I did those things anyway!
ReplyDeleteExcellent and relevant post. We live in a world of Facebook and self-affirmation in which are very actions of eating cereal, if posted, are "liked" by many. Living in this sort of world gives us a false sense that our actions, especially those which we deem "sacrificial" or "humble" are given meaning by others' affirmations of them. Consequently, we lose sight of why we are doing what we are doing in the first place and if our "sacrificial act" is disrupted for whatever reason, we give up. This, of course, does not align with the purpose of the action in the first place. I think this is especially bad in our current society in which everyone has a hugely overinflated sense of self-worth (everyone is special, everyone deserves a gold star). My actions and the fact that I am doing them (even though it's not EASY) is so very important -- to what purpose or for whom I am doing them is not. Thank you for this. It's really helped me think about own actions as an individual and the ideas I put forth in my classroom as well.
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