What a misery to be ashamed of our duties and our principles !
Religion, which ought to be our peace, becomes our torment.
A general wish to please, a laying ourselves out in particular subject matters in order to please, building castles in the air and imagining heroic acts, reflecting on the praise bestowed upon us, and giving way to low spirits when dispraised,— these are all manifestations of this horrible human respect.
Human respect, however, is not so much a particular fault, as a whole world of faults. It is the death of all religion.
We shall never have an adequate horror of it until we admit that these hard words are no exaggeration.
The special task of Christians is the realization of the invisible world. They have different standards of right and wrong from the votaries of earth. They live inextricably mixed up with the children of the world...
Indeed it is itself a sort of spurious counterfeit religion.
It is a form of mental paganism. It forces sin into concealment...and pretends an alliance with prudence and discretion.
Few are aware, until they honestly turn to God, how completely they are the slaves of this vice. Then they wake up to a sense of it, and see how it is in their blood, as if it were their life and their identity, an inexplicable unconquerable vital thing. There is not a class of society which it has not mastered, no corner of private life that it has not invaded, no conventual cell but its air is freighted with the poisonous influence. It rivals what theologians call the pluri-presence of Satan. In modern society men systematize it, acknowledge it as a power, uphold its claims, and punish those who refuse submission.
How to Overcome Human Respect, and What to Expect If You Do
When we give ourselves up to God, we deliberately commit ourselves to live a supernatural life. Now what does a supernatural life mean? It means giving up this life altogether, as seeing we cannot have both worlds.
A supernatural life means that we do not make sin the limit of our freedom...It means mortification.
A conviction of our own weakness is the ground-work of all our actions, and we lean our whole weight on supernatural aids and sacramental assistances, as depending solely upon them. To a certain extent we even become unsocial by silence, or solitude, or penance, or seeming eccentricity, or vocation. In a word, we deliberately become members of a minority, knowing we shall suffer for it.
Now, realizing this significancy of the spiritual life, what is the view the world will naturally take of us, and how will it feel towards us? The world, half unconsciously, believes in its own infallibility. Hence it is first of all surprised, and then irritated, with our venturing to act on different principles from itself.
If we succeed in what we undertake for God, or have influence, or convert persons, or take any high line, or reproach others by our example, we must make our account to be hated. We shall be feared, and with an angry fear, when men see we have a view and go on a principle, which they do not. We shall be misunderstood, because even those who would naturally take a good-natured view of us cannot see what we see. They have no grasp of our principles, and so they often think they have got logical proof of our inconsistency.
From Growth in Holiness: The Progress of the Spiritual Life by Fr. Frederick William Faber
