Ruminations of an Irascible Hermit.: The Incarnation as the antidote for bitterness in the spiritual life

Saturday, December 3, 2022

The Incarnation as the antidote for bitterness in the spiritual life

As St Teresa of Avila teaches us - self knowledge is very important in the spiritual life. We need to understand ourselves, know who we are, understand why we react the way we do etc.. otherwise this is where the devil gets in and starts to subtly get his claws in. As Pope Francis demonstrates here, the devil enters subtly without us realising it. Then we begin to get more bitter, angry and hurt over things. We resent others, start to feel the victim and that we have been hard done by.

This is why it’s important to examine ourselves daily, asking the Holy Spirit to help illuminate our feelings and show us where the devil may be making us fall into hardness of heart. This is why Jesus taught us the importance of forgiveness and it is one of the petitions in the “Our Father”. A hard and unforgiving heart is a sign we have lost supernatural charity and are not living the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).

As we enter the second week of Advent and prepare to celebrate the mystery of the Christ Child, try to meditate on the tenderness of God, the loving mercy that has appeared to us (Titus 3:4) and saved us. This truth of our faith should help you to grow in compassion for others and yourself - if God loves you so much that he became a helpless baby to be one with you, then how can you not love others or yourself with the same love that Christ has demonstrated to us?

This is something I have felt God teaching me in my prayer life recently. The Holy Spirit has been “tenderising” my heart and teaching me the importance of compassion, which has also highlighted to me the danger of bitterness in the spiritual life.

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Disclaimer

Please note. I am a Catholic layman, not a qualified theologian or philosopher. What I say and write here are my own personal thoughts and ideas, although I always try to conform my writings to the Magisterium of the Church.

I- with firm faith believe and profess everything that is contained in the symbol of faith: namely,

I believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven: By the power of the Holy Spirit, he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered, died and was buried. On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. I believe in the one holy catholic and apostolic church. I acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

With firm faith I believe as well everything contained in God's word, written or handed down in tradition and proposed by the church--whether in solemn judgment or in the ordinary and universal Magisterium--as divinely revealed and called for faith.

I also firmly accept and hold each and every thing that is proposed by that same church definitively with regard to teaching concerning faith or morals.

What is more, I adhere with religious submission of will and intellect to the teachings which either the Roman pontiff or the college of bishops enunciate when they exercise the authentic Magisterium even if they proclaim those teachings in an act that is not definitive.