LT Tuần 2 - Ba Trình Ðộ Khiêm Nhường

Một hình ảnh giúp cầu nguyện với đề tài này lấy thí dụ từ một người bị xúc phạm đến danh dự của mình:

First Mode: He does not care to retrieve his good name if it cannot be done without serious sin.

Second Mode: He will not try to defend his honor if this would involve committing venial sin; but if it can be done without sin, he wants to restore his reputation.

Third Mode: He considers the loss of reputation as profit in Christ. Instead of defending himself, he will gladly suffer the injury in silence. But on one condition: as long as God's glory is equally served, i.e., when neither a moral obligation nor benefit to others demands that he vindicate his legitimate rights. If such an obligation or benefit exists, then ipso facto there is no longer equal glory to God, and he will defend his reputation without failing in the spirit of the third mode. All the while his internal dispositions are such that if a just defense of his honor were not obligatory in itself or profitable to the neighbor, he will consider it a privilege to suffer in the company of his humiliated Master."

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Opera Spiritualia, Joannis P. Roothaan, Vol II, p.117