Admiration for what is superior draws me toward heaven; self-admiration draws me toward hell.

Newsdesk (July 3, 2021 9:09 AM Gaudium Press) However, when He proclaimed salvation to His relatives and acquaintances, they did not believe Him. This shows the malignancy of the human tendency to judge by appearance and not to accept that which is superior. This spiritual blindness is the fruit of mediocrity. A mediocre person never acknowledges qualities that do not reflect back to him; he is the arch-egoist. And every egoist is mediocre because these are reciprocal and inseparable defects. Mediocrity makes a person wilfully ignore whatever may be superior to him, immediately denigrating it. Intending to humiliate him, the Nazarenes called Jesus “the carpenter.” This was not a reference to St. Joseph, because according to some commentators, he was no longer living. 

Admiration justifies

The early Church’s history would have been very different had the Nazarenes admired and followed Our Lord. 

St. Thomas emphasizes the role of admiration and love in affirming that even if not baptized, those who guide their lives according to their proper end, loving a true good more than themselves, obtain the remission of original sin through grace. 

We could invert the Angelic Doctor’s affirmation and say that when a person loves himself more than a good, he becomes mediocre and egoistic, becoming blind to God and opening himself to all forms of evil. For just as those who love a superior-good more than themselves unite themselves to God, those who love themselves above all things and more than God ally themselves with the devil.

Therefore, in this vein, the boundary separating heaven from hell is delineated by one word: admiration. Admiration for what is superior draws me toward heaven; self-admiration draws me toward hell.

Antidote against mediocrity

If we are negligent in combating the tendency to egoism and mediocrity, shown, on this occasion, by the Nazarenes, we will find difficulty in acknowledging and admiring the qualities of others. Therefore, we should practice the virtue of self-detachment, and an efficient way to do this is to recognize the superior aspects in our neighbour and desire to admire and encourage him.

We should make admiration a permanent habit. And, if we note actual superiority in ourselves, we should put it at the service of others and never let it be a source of vanity. The invitation to practice the virtue of humility is perennial. The Church fittingly says through the Collect of the day: “O God, who in the abasement of your Son have raised up a fallen world…” As God acted toward the world, so should we work toward whoever is inferior to us in some way. Christ felt compassion for humanity and, with His soul always in the Beatific Vision, He took on a suffering body for the love of men.

God’s plan with the instinct of sociability

This is God’s great plan for human society: in creating men with a deep-rooted instinct of sociability, He deigned to provide them with the means of helping one another, in reciprocal admiration for gifts received, so that, rising above comparison and envy, all could attain to the desire of serving and praising that which is superior to him

An important consequence—pardon, which is the fruit of charity—flows from these truths. Unlimited pardon should spring from the depths of our hearts when we receive an offence. In this way, we contribute to building a society where there is mutual pardon and the desire to elevate one another continually. Desiring that our neighbour grows in virtue and offering our admiration and praise for his qualities is one of the wisest ways of practicing the love of God toward him. A society based on this Gospel principle would eliminate many of the horrors prevalent today.

By uniting people around their love of God, it would become the happiest that can be attained in this valley of tears. When this society becomes a reality, it could rightly be called the Reign of Mary because it will be pervaded with the goodness of the Wise and Immaculate Heart of the Mother of God. It will be a reign in which the Blessed Virgin will transmit to all a participation in the supreme maternal instinct that she has for each one of us. And then we will entirely understand what she said at Fatima: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph!”

Msgr. João Scognamiglio Clá Dias, EP.

Text adapted from Heralds of the Gospel Magazine July 2012

Compiled by Gustavo Kralj

Espiritualidade, Admiração antídoto contra a mediocridade e o egoísmo, Como vencer o egoísmo?, Mediocridade e egoísmoGaudium Press