Article February 1, 1982 Issue

Overcoming self-justification

KURT GLADHORN

The greatest victory anyone can win is the victory over mortal selfhood. This conquest does not involve giving up our real identity but giving up a material, personal sense of self and its self-justification.

Because of the seemingly limitless capacity of mortal selfhood for self-justification, it is not always easy to detect the thoughts leading to self-centeredness and egotism. Pride, vanity, arrogance, envy, selfishness, present themselves as our own thoughts, willed by us and justified by us. Therefore in the battle to overcome self-justification, timely reproof from others may help us discern what thoughts we have to reject and what attitudes we have to give up. Mrs. Eddy writes, "During many years the author has been most grateful for merited rebuke."^{ Science and Health, p. 9.}

Any reproof we receive should not, therefore, be immediately countered by self-justification. Rather, it should be followed by an honest self-examination to ascertain in what direction the rebuke may contain a grain of truth. Whatever is legitimate in the reproof or criticism identifies a false claim of mortal selfhood, not belonging to our real, spiritual selfhood. Armed with self-knowledge and a Christlike understanding of man's spiritual identity as God's expression, we can then challenge false claims and overcome them.

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