Sacrum Silentium again reminded me of that story in the desert fathers where the laughter of one monk made another weep, asking what in the world could be funny when our souls are in peril...
Salvatore reminded me of the story in the desert fathers where a monk was being ridiculed by a man, who was accusing him of all sorts of things which the monk humbly agreed to... except for one thing.
The man told him, you are a murderer! The man had held anger in his heart against his brother and said it is so, I am a murderer. The man told him, you are a thief! And the monk knew that in his mind he had once wanted to steal, so he replied yes, I am a thief. The man told him, you are an adulterer! The monk replied, it is so, knowing of the lust he had once held in his heart towards women.
The man then replied, you are a heretic! To which the monk rose to his feet and told the man sternly, an adulterer, a thief and a murderer I may be, but I am no heretic!
Bushmasterswife and Blake have made me think that perhaps I should have used another email account to sign up, seeing how I don't care to get spammed...
SS made me remember the response, "Gee, Mr. Monk, how come I can accuse you of all these nasty things and you just sit there, but when I call you a heretic you freak out?"
Methinks the language in the books is a bit higher, but it gets the point across.
The moral of the story is, we should humble ourselves and admit our sins to all, but we cannot display ourselves as heretics or we defame and blaspheme the Church!
Bushmasterswife's screen name abbreviated is BMW...how cool is that especially 'cuz BMW's are beautiful machines! (edit: oh and I am not saying that you are a machine just that I think the coincidence is gnarly....lol)