Silencing the Pharisee Within
- ARCHBISHOP LUIS MARIA MARTINEZ
Suppose...that you have deposited in the bank a large sum of money upon which you can draw at will.
One day you grow ill of a grave and serious sickness. In this condition, you are asked to sign a check for less than the amount of money you have on deposit. But you object, "How can I sign the check when I am ill?"
Now your illness in no way affects your credit at the bank; it affects only your health, not your deposit, which remains intact. "That is true," you say, "but I am ill." Your illness has nothing to do with the matter. If you no longer had any money in the bank, you would not be able to draw on it, but since your deposit remains intact, you are able to draw on it even though you are ill.
A soul who falls and loses confidence reasons with the same lack of logic. "How can I with full confidence draw near to God if I am an ingrate, if I am loaded down with sins?"
Let us see. Do you have resources in the bank? Yes, for therein is the goodness of God, which is infinite; therein is his love, which has suffered no diminution; therein is his mercy, which is unbounded. What does it matter, then, that you are what you are, as long as God, despite your miseries, continues to be what he is?
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Acknowledgement
Archbishop Luis Maria Martinez. "Silencing the Pharisee Within." from Worshipping a Hidden God, Unlocking the Secrets of the Hidden Life. (Manchester, NH: Sophia Institute Press, 2014).
This excerpt appeared in Magnificat in August 2018.
The Author
Archbishop Martínez († 1956) was a spiritual author and the first official Primate of Mexico. He is the author of the recently translated work, Am I Not Your Mother? Reflections on Our Lady of Guadalupe, published by Magnificat.
