[votivesoul]

Just finished The Way of Humilty by Jorge Mario Bergoglio, a.k.a. Pope Francis I (written before he was selected to be the Bishop of Rome).

This is a short, easy read. The book is actually comprised of two parts. Part One is called "Corruption and Sin". The second part is called "On Self-Accusation".

I found the comments about corruption to be inspired. Regardless of anyone's personal opinion of him, at the time of this writing, the man really knew his stuff. His main contention is that sin is an action, but corruption is a state. One may fall into sin, but otherwise, not be a corrupt person; however, anyone who is corrupt in their heart seemingly does nothing but sin.

His insights into this area I found to be quite keen. It helped me make sense of some people I know (LOL!).

The second part, I felt, was less focused, and kind of rambled on in no particular direction. The idea behind it, is that, in order to maintain humility, and in order to defend one's self from becoming offended if and when someone says or does something odious, the best thing to do is to resort to accuse the self of one's own short-coming and failures, so that the beam, and not the mote, is what is seen and is addressed.

I find the concept to be mostly right, theologically speaking, and was even pleased to see the example of David and Shimei used, something that at different points in my own life and walk, I have used, in an attempt to explain why someone seemed to be saying or doing something rather odious.

Be that as it may, I also detected a tinge of a recommendation to resort to self-condemnation, something I believe can be very dangerous, especially for the born again believer, who has been declared righteous in that Christ was condemned for him or her, so long as they are free from the practice of sin.

It's a fine line, to be sure.