The Celtic Book of Days: Ancient Wisdom for Each Day of the Year From the Celtic Followers of Christ by Ray Simpson

Author:Ray Simpson [Simpson, Ray]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781937211127
Amazon: 1937211126
Publisher: Anamchara Books
Published: 2013-06-27T07:00:00+00:00

JULY 4 True to Yourself

Psalm 112; Deuteronomy 32:1–18; 2 Timothy 3

Your God is faithful and true.

Deuteronomy 32:4 gnt

To thine own self be true.

William Shakespeare

We are meant to be faithful and true, just as God is. However, since we all want and need to be affirmed—though many of us are not—we instinctively seek illicit affirmation, by tailoring our actions in order to gain the approval of others. In a subtle way, this means that we are no longer being true to ourselves. We perhaps unconsciously say to ourselves, “If I behave in this or that way, I will not get the affirmation I need—so I will adjust my behavior accordingly.”

Once, when Columba visited the brothers on Hinba Island, he felt they needed to learn to enjoy life, to loosen up and relax their strict diet for a while. He wanted this relaxation to include people who were doing penance for some past sin. One of these, Nemen, refused to relax his diet, however. Nemen sounded very pious, but Columba realized that Nemen was not really being true to himself. Columba predicted that, because of this, the time would come when Nemen would end up with a gang of thieves in a forest and would eat a horse that had been stolen. Later, Nemen was found out to be doing just that. He refused legitimate pleasure in order to impress others—only to succumb to a secret and less healthy indulgence.

How can we cure our dependence on others’ affirmation? Here is a prescription from the desert: Abba Macarios told a monk to go to a cemetery and shout his anger at the dead. This he did. Then Macarios told the monk to go there again and this time to praise the dead. He did this, too. In both cases, of course, the graves lay silent. Macarios concluded, “I want you to be like those dead, giving no response to praise or blame.”

Help me to be true to myself,

true to you, true to others,

true to the call, true to all,

true to heaven.

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