TRANSCRIPT:
You know, during Advent, like with Lent, it’s a great time to reflect on our Lord’s life and how it’s an example for us in every way. And you know, it occurred to me that Our Lord would have exemplified this notion of abasement, where you lower yourself to the point where you don’t even defend yourself when people lie about you, when people say things to hurt you or imply things about you, or just outright engage in slander, defamation, and libel.
Our Lord lived His whole life that way. We’re familiar with the examples during His Passion, where he was accused of things, betrayed over and over and over again and never once spoke up to defend Himself from those lies. But He would have lived His entire life like that. And we know what people are like. Kids, for example- surely there were times when He was a child when He was playing with the other kids in the village- whether it was Bethlehem or Nazareth or in Egypt or wherever He was-.and there must have been times when, kids being kids, things happened; a window got knocked out in a nice home or somebody did something, and they pointed the finger at Jesus and blamed Him.
It’s almost certain that He would not have defended Himself unless the circumstances just really required that He speak the truth rather than take the blame. And I was thinking about myself and how difficult it is to take the blame. It’s hard enough when it’s true, but when it’s false, when it’s a lie, there’s something in me- perhaps you all have experienced this too- that someone lies about you and blames you falsely, and it just screams out in you to defend yourself. And gosh, there’s a lot of work there to be done to be willing to take the blame when you’re not guilty.
And this happens in the workplace, it happens in society, it happens online- worst of all, probably, if you’re online, on social media. And it even happens at home, right? It might be that your spouse says something about you that’s not true. Sometimes that happens between spouses, right? “Well, you did this,” or “You said this,” or “You made it sound like this.” And sometimes it’s just not true, and you might feel that defense lawyer begging to come out of you and defend yourself to the very end- every ‘i’ dotted and ‘t’ crossed and so forth. But sometimes, even just on a practical level, not just the spiritual doing it for humility, but on the practical level, sometimes it really is just better to say nothing. And your silence kind of allows that word, that unspoken admission of guilt, to be assumed, and yet it might actually be better for the situation. It might be better for that relationship. And maybe days later, weeks later, months or years later, it could be addressed, and you say, “You know, there was this time…” But in that moment, it might be better to say nothing.
And it’s painful. It’s difficult. It’s hard. But Our Lord has given us the example that it is better, oftentimes, for our soul. And it might just be better for our relationship with other people and the example that we set, especially if you have children. I hope this has been helpful, and I hope you’ll pray for me as I work on this. Thanks.