“We should receive correction without letting any sensitiveness or bitterness of heart remain in us.” (Saint Francis de Sales, “Imitation of Christ”, page 75).
When Saint Josemaria was preparing his work of Opus Dei, he wished to allow fraternal correction of subordinates to their superiors.
This was a very important point for him. When the Pope tried to convince him that such an approach would be unadvisable because within the Church it is almost impossible to find an instance where superiors are corrected by their subordinates. The reasoning of the Saint in this regard was that without fraternal correction, he was going to be deprived of an opportunity to improve. And even though in practice, such an approach was trying on his patience – because it is understandably easier when people just agree with us and go along with whatever we want them to do – Saint Josemaria experienced great benefit of being able to rely on the unfiltered opinions of those who were his subordinates.
It meant that he was always given the opportunity to consider his own behaviour and change his approach or direction based on the feedback he was receiving at the time.
Saint Francis de Sales in “Imitation of Christ” at page 75 wrote, “We should receive correction without letting any sensitiveness or bitterness of heart remain in us. To prevent a feeling of anger from stirring within us, and to keep the blood from showing itself in our face is surely impossible. Happy, indeed shall we be if we attain to this perfection a quarter of an hour before we die! But to maintain bitterness in our minds in such a way that after this feeling has passed, we do not speak with the same confidence, gentleness, and calmness as before -- oh, this we must take all pains to avoid!”
And I have been thinking about this as well. You see, that fragility – that emotional response to correction and criticism is such an opportunity for growth… Without the charitable corrections of others we are in danger or not being able to see our own flaws and instead become blinded by our own pride. And if that were to happen, we would be prevented from being able to improve in the eyes of God.
But when we consider correction, both the corrector and the corrected party must behave with charity. If either of them is uncharitable then there is a risk that their message – however, accurate it might be – will be lost within the poor intentions of the delivery or the poor reaction of the recipient.
And it seems to be today that surely the easiest way for the Evil One to undo the good work of Charitable Correction is to simply allow us to feel indignant or outraged by the comments being made. For nothing blinds a soul to the truth more quickly than pride and indignation – after all, that was pretty much the whole problem with the Pharisees – the whole entire problem…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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