1 Peter 2:23
When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he trusted to him who judges justly.
In his book The Great Divorce C.S. Lewis sends some denizens of hell on a bus ride to heaven so that he may examine what our earthly obsessions look like from a heavenly perspective. In one scene, we meet an artist who can only talk about painting heaven so that he can make some “point” against a group of rival artists back on earth who belong to a different school of aesthetics. One of the blessed in heaven tells him that he has corrupted his art and tells him that what began as a pure love—his love of light and of the beauty of light—has degenerated in a mere interest in paint and, from there, into a mere interest in battling over his theories about aesthetics so that he may pridefully defeat some warring aesthetic faction or other. Similarly, Christians can begin by loving the beauty of the light of Christ and end by bitterly fighting over this or that doctrinal belief for the sheer sake of egoism. It is true that the truth must be defended. But it is not true that the Truth is “our” truth nor that we possess it in such a way that those who deny it are safely held in contempt. The truth, said Pope John Paul II, possesses us, not we the Truth. The moment our defense of any truth becomes an occasion of egoism is the moment we have ceased to serve Christ and begun to serve ourselves. The best way to ward that evil off is to forgive those who reject what we say and trust him who judges justly.
