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“Ah, you who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Ah, you who are wise in your own eyes, and shrewd in your own sight!” –– Isaiah 5:20-21
Do you think it is illusion or delusion that poses the greater threat as we sip, drink, and gulp from this society’s overflowing chalice of malice? Is it our gullibility to an illusion or the arrogance which feeds our delusion that forms the greater obstacle on the road to relationship and community? Are we the fooled or the fool when we claim to have mastered the truth about ourselves and our world?
Though offered some 2700 years ago on the other side of the earth, the observations of the prophet Isaiah seem prescient in this era of bad feelings –– “Ah, you who call evil good and good evil … you who are wise in your own eyes…” Noted author Richard Rohr observes, “The prophet’s job was always spotting where the problem really lies: in the accusing ones themselves and in the delusions of the collective. They point out the universal illusion: ‘Because your stone throwing is bad, my stone throwing is good.’ And if the problem is really located in every group’s aimlessly followed cultural agreements, it cannot be dumped on a few scapegoats, leaving us who are ‘more righteous’ innocent and free of guilt or shame.” (Richard Rohr, The Tears of Things)
As Jesus intimated, we are far more willing to note the speck in our neighbor’s eye, than to perceive the log in our own eye. We tend to behave like the loved one who feels horribly, but refuses to go to the doctor. We are afraid of the truth about ourselves. Projecting blame is far easier.
And so it is that Jesus taught the parable to those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”
If I feel constantly compelled to impress upon you how great I am and how righteous are my opinions, or if I cannot resist demeaning anyone who challenges me or disagrees with me, what is it that I am doing? Perhaps casting illusions upon the gullible? Or, maybe deluding myself to avoid the truth about me? “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. It is better to be of a lowly spirit among the poor than to divide the spoil with the proud.” (Proverbs 16:18-19)
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