Love
is patient; love is kind and envies no one. Love is never boastful,
nor conceited, nor rude; never selfish, nor quick to take offense.
Love keeps no score of wrongs; does not gloat over other men’s
sins, but delights in the truth. There is nothing love cannot
face; there is no limit to its faith, its hope, and its endurance. (1
Corinthians 13:4-7 New English Translation, 1961. Emphasis mine).
In
yesterday’s blog I mentioned a New Testament Bible that my father
gave me in 1961. It is the New English Translation of that year. I
am struck by the above passage, especially the words which I have
emphasized in bold.
Gloat
defined: to observe or think about something with triumphant and
often malicious satisfaction, gratification, or delight (gloat over
an enemy's misfortune) [Merriam-Webster].
It
seems to me that a midcourse correction is way overdue. We have
traveled a long ways down the road upon which a fetish is made of
other people’s misfortune evidenced by endless trash-talk chatter
in the media or, sad to say, by ourselves when we slam others at work
or even in our homes. There is no better or self-revealing term
regarding this than gloating over. It lays bare our eager
meanness, excited delight, and unrelieved hatred when we trash others
and coincidentally show our own highly starched self-righteousness.
Let us like Joshua begin at home. Let us pledge that for me and my
house a sweet spirit of kindness, hope, and generosity will
prevail—the writhing stew of cynicism and darkness that
characterizes the outside world will be banned. I may not be able to
control the climate everywhere, but I can control the tone and tenor
under the roof of my own house. Then I will be able to affirm that
trash talk filled with self-aggrandizement and cynicism are strangers
here: here; belief, faith and charity reside.
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