Fruitful Self-Knowledge
“The only fruitful self-knowledge, and the only true one, is that which grows out of a man’s self-confrontation with God. We must first look at God and His immeasurable glory, and then put the question: ‘Who art Thou, and who am I?’ We must speak with St. Augustine: ‘Could I but know Thee, I should know myself.’ It is only in recognition of our metaphysical situation, only in awareness of our destiny and our vocation that we can become truly cognizant of ourselves. Only the light of God and His challenge to us can open our eyes to all our shortcomings and deficiencies, impressing upon us the discrepancy between what we ought to be and what we are. Contemplation of one’s own self in this light is animated by a profound earnestness; it is vastly different from all species of a neutral and purely psychological self-analysis.
...Self-knowledge in this sense presupposes the readiness to change. We take an interest in what we are because we are determined to become new men in Christ. Here is no place for idle curiosity, nor for the egoistic fixation on oneself as a paramount theme. It is for the sake of God that we would become better men; and because we would become so we inquire about our present state and condition.
...[The person seeking fruitful self-knowledge] knows that he can accomplish nothing through his own power but everything in Christ.
Not by his own force shall he span the abyss that yawns between him and God: Christ shall carry him over, if he is willing to follow Him without reserve. By His light, there is no darkness that cannot be dispelled, nay, even changed into radiating brightness. ‘Darkness shall not be dark to Thee, and night shall be light as the day’ (Ps. 139:12).”
~Dietrich von Hildebrand
...Self-knowledge in this sense presupposes the readiness to change. We take an interest in what we are because we are determined to become new men in Christ. Here is no place for idle curiosity, nor for the egoistic fixation on oneself as a paramount theme. It is for the sake of God that we would become better men; and because we would become so we inquire about our present state and condition.
...[The person seeking fruitful self-knowledge] knows that he can accomplish nothing through his own power but everything in Christ.
Not by his own force shall he span the abyss that yawns between him and God: Christ shall carry him over, if he is willing to follow Him without reserve. By His light, there is no darkness that cannot be dispelled, nay, even changed into radiating brightness. ‘Darkness shall not be dark to Thee, and night shall be light as the day’ (Ps. 139:12).”
~Dietrich von Hildebrand
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