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Monday, July 07, 2014

Does Our Haughtiness Separate Us?

"For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone." [Saint Paul to the Romans] 

"Great is the power of the medicine and the force of this illustration for correcting the disease of haughtiness. Why [he means} do you think highly of yourself? Or why again does another utterly despise himself? Are we not all one body, great and small? Then as we are in the total number but one, and members of another, why do you by your haughtiness separate yourself? Why do you put your brother to shame? For so as he is a member of you, so are you also of him. And it is on this score that your claims to honor are so equal...So too, when he touches upon the gifts, he does not say that one received more or another less, but what? Different. And what if you are not appointed to the same office? Still the body is the same...

It requires a very noble soul, not only to keep from envying, but even to feel pleasure with the person who is in esteem...When your neighbor is ill-treated, you ought to make that calamity your own. Share then in his tears...Has a poor man come into your house?...There is no rich or poor in Christ. Be not ashamed of him because of his external dress, but receive him because of his inward faith." [Saint John Chrysostom]

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