Silencing Self-Justification

Ella W. Hoag

Emerson was wise enough to write of one who was truly humble, "If he is insulted, he can be insulted; all his affair is not to insult." Emerson, however, did not give the definite rule whereby one may gain that mental state of equanimity in which he may remain all undisturbed whatever may be the temptation to strike back against misjudgment and wrong, whatever may be the human inclination to employ self-justification as a weapon to deliver one's self from the condemnation of one's neighbor.

Jesus understood and demonstrated that mighty humility which could remain silent in the presence of the unjust judge. There is no record of his ever resorting to self-justification to establish his righteousness in the thought of either friend or foe. On the contrary, Peter speaks of him as one "who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously." Here, then, was the secret of Jesus' humility and his consequent power to refuse to descend to the mistaken method of self-justification: he "committed himself to him that judgeth righteously"! He certainly knew that God is the alone perfectly righteous judge.

How surely Jesus must have discerned that there could be no possible satisfaction in attempting to convince anyone of his righteousness from the basis of a human sense of self! How clearly he must have seen that nothing could be gained by appealing for justification to a consciousness blinded by misjudgment! A mental sense thus clouded would not be ready to accept any testimony which one might offer, whether it were true or false, since that which misjudges inevitably shuts itself out from right seeing; indeed, it blinds itself to a just estimate of both truth and error.

Now self-justification is perhaps the most foolish of all human tendencies; for that which is false or wrong can never be justified, while that which is true and right needs no justification: it is its own justification because it belongs to God, good, and He will certainly see that all which is of Him shall be acknowledged properly by all in His own wise time and way.

This lesson of refusing to attempt any form of self-justification is, however, one which mortals seem very slow to learn. Human belief is prone to imagine that what another may think or say of one can do something for or against that one. The fact is that nothing, whether true or false, which may be said of one has any power whatever to make one either better or worse. In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 83) Mrs. Eddy says, "No person can accept another's belief, except it be with the consent of his own belief." One's mental status is his own, and his alone; and it is his privilege to prove to his own satisfaction that it is at-one with all that is good and perfect—yes, with divine Mind itself.

Our peace, therefore, is entirely dependent on our own realization and proof that we are at-one with our loving Father-Mother God. John wrote: "Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight."

As Christian Scientists we are quite aware that any attempt to justify ourselves is a tacit acknowledgment that we are not sure of our own righteousness—of our own unity with divine Mind; it is an admission that we are not confident that we have done those things which "are pleasing in his sight." Under such circumstances we should quickly recognize the necessity of bringing our thinking and living into harmony with Truth and Love, and should spend no time in trying to comfort ourselves by leaning on the broken reed of self-justification.

Jesus knew no such weakness. In "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 227) our Leader writes of him: "The great Master said, 'For which of those works do ye stone me?" He said this to satisfy himself regarding that which he spake as God's representative—as one who never weakened in his own personal sense of righteousness because of another's wickedness or because of the minifying of his own goodness by another."

If, therefore, we would attain this consciousness of reflected righteousness which Jesus so calmly and invariably maintained, we must be willing to silence all belief that self-justification can ever bring us any satisfaction whatsoever. We must in all humility be willing to measure our own thoughts and acts by those of the Master, until through the conquering of a false selfhood we too may receive the justification which God alone can bestow in the "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: ... enter thou into the joy of thy lord."

Ella W. Hoag

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