Equanimity
Fr. Tony’s Midweek Message
September 2, 2020
“Treat others as you would want to be treated” (Luke 6:31).
“Those who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it” (Luke 17:33).
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous… Be perfectly compassionate, therefore, just as your heavenly Father is” (Matthew 5:43-48).
Humility and mercy are both held as Christian virtues, but we often misunderstand what they actually are. Humility is not thinking badly of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less and less. It is not groveling or beating up on oneself: rather, it is esteeming yourself as of equal worth with others, caring for yourself just about how you care about others. Mercy is not looking down on the pitiful and helping them: as understood by Christians, it is compassion, feeling solidarity with others and helping them.
The difference between these “close enemy” virtues that mimic true virtues and steal their names while all the same robbing them of their power and essence is this: equanimity, that is, not thinking more highly of yourself than you think of others, removing competition from the occasion altogether. Pride is not so much joy in having something; it is joy in having more than someone else. Humility, on the other hand, is applying the golden rule to our perceptions of self: taking as much joy in the success of others as we take in our own, criticizing and rejecting their failings no more harshly than we do our own.
In Mark 3, Jesus is asked to join his mother and brothers who are outside the hall where he is teaching. His reply? “Who is my mother and who are my brothers?” and, pointing to those around him, “Here are my mother and brothers: whoever does the will of God.” Jesus rejects putting his own self and family first, and says we must be equanimous in our judgments and sense of obligations.
Our day-to-day minds are heavily biased. We put at a distance those whom we see as enemies or threats, and put most of our resources and time to supporting those we see as close to us. We place our family and circle of friends first. We put our tribe and our nation first. But a mind that is ridden with unexamined bias is a mind ridden with fear and loathing, incapable of compassion and incapable of true humility. Until we overcome our prejudice, we are slaves to it.
O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Grace and Peace,
Fr. Tony+
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