Flee from anonymity

How many there are who, in the confusion of the crowd, will dare to utter a crude insult or an obscene expression as a great procession goes by, but would be cowed into silence if they were on their own, face to face, exposed and having to take responsibility for their actions. Insincerity, which leads to anonymity and cowardice, to avoiding responsibility for one’s own actions, raises an unseen hand in the middle of a street riot to throw a stone and shatter the stained glass of a gothic cathedral. Christian reason, which leads us to love the freedom and personal responsibility of every individual, has to make us really want to know ourselves, and so accept the consequences of our free actions. Our daily examination of conscience will give us self-knowledge, true humility and, as a consequence, it will obtain perseverance for us from heaven.

O Lord, you have searched me and known me! … and are acquainted with all my ways … Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it altogether… Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!... If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you, the night is bright as the day; for darkness is as light with you (Ps 139[138]:1,4,7-8,11-12).