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| Image: GerryRiskin |
Compunction: a Lenten pin to inflated egos
"The purpose of the first part of Lent is to bring us to compunction. Compunction is etymologically related to the verb to puncture and suggests the deflation of our inflated egos, a challenge to any self-deceit about the quality of our lives as disciples of Jesus. By hitting us again and again with demands which we not only fail to obey, but which we come to recognize as being quite beyond us, the gospel passages are meant to trouble us, to confront our illusions about ourselves.
"Remember, you are dust... From this perspective, Lenten penance may be more effective if we fail in our resolutions than if we succeed, for its purpose is not to confirm us in our sense of virtue but to bring home to us our radical need of salvation."
-Mark Searle in Assembly, vol. 8, no. 3In other words, perfect penitential practice that feeds the ego has utterly failed, while a failed effort at penance, recognized and humbly acknowledged, has the potential for deeper reliance on God's mercy, which is pure grace.
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I love the image -- and the advice is timely as well.
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ReplyDelete"...but which we come to recognize as being quite beyond us..."
oh yes, a lot seems quite beyond me-
and I think I am feeling a "deeper reliance on God's mercy..."
You had me at Searle... Love his work. We read him in one of my classes; I think you can guess who the instructor was!
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