**DISCLAIMER \u2013 If you do not enjoy a little earthy humor, then this post may not be for you**<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pope Gregory the Great was a legendary preacher. But he gave\nat least one crappy homily. That is to say, he gave a homily in which dung was\na featured metaphor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How, you might ask, did I stumble upon this homily? Mainly because of my stepdad\u2019s propensity for poop jokes. They weren\u2019t necessarily his favorite form of humor, but they were a solid number two. He certainly struggled with his woundedness, but no one ever denied his sense of humor. Like many dads, he was an old pro at the \u201cpull my finger\u201d bit. But he also had more elaborate jokes. If we had friends over, when they asked to use our bathroom, he would normally encourage them to write their weight on the wall. When they looked at him in confusion and bewilderment, he would explain, \u201cThat way if you fall in, we know how much to scoop out.\u201d My sisters didn\u2019t exactly appreciate him saying that to their boyfriends, but I think all of us far preferred his lighthearted and mischievous moods to his angry ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you do doctoral research in theology, you never know what you might find. There I was back in 2010, sifting through various texts of the early Church Fathers, when I noticed Gregory repeatedly using the Latin word stercus<\/em> (\u201cdung\u201d). Given my crappy upbringing, I definitely did a double take. I couldn\u2019t resist reading the entire homily. It ended up being one of the most remarkable bits of writing that I\u2019ve ever read, beginning with the earthiness of manure and culminating with an intense heavenly yearning (both in Gregory’s preaching and in my own heart).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The homily ponders two images from Luke 13:6-17: the parable\nof the fruitless fig tree and the healing of the stooped woman. For three years\nthe fig tree has born no fruit, and the master is ready to remove it. The\nsteward begs the master for one more chance. He will dig around the tree. He\nwill take a bucket of dung and fertilize the tree at its roots. Then, if it\nstill bears no fruit, the master can cut it down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gregory compares the fruitless fig tree to our fallen human\nnature. The works of the flesh leave us fruitless. We are in need of conversion\nand repentance. We need to become detached and free from our sins \u2013 not merely\nin the moment of acting out, but going down to the roots of our pride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How does the dung come in? As Gregory explains, \u201cWhat is the\nbucket of dung but the mindfulness of our sins?\u201d Remembering the stench of our\nsins while simultaneously stretching out in works of charity, we grow and bear\nfruit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gregory describes this mindfulness of our sins as\n\u201ccompunction\u201d \u2013 a virtue rarely talked about in these decades of promoting\npositive self-esteem. While I fully acknowledge the damage done by low\nself-esteem, self-loathing, or shame, I am also convinced of the wisdom of\nGregory on this point. Compunction is a humble awareness of our sinfulness and\nour total dependence on God. We will\nnever bear fruit without Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is definitely a difference between compunction and\nshame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Compunction involves true humility, leading us to rise above\nour sins and failures and reach out to heavenly truth. Shame, by contrast, is a\nsort of upside-down version of pride. We prefer denial or minimizing because,\ndeep down, we know that some of our behaviors really stink. We are afraid that\nother people, if allowed too close to the stench, will stop loving us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Compunction leads us to have deep compassion towards others,\novercoming any anger or judgment we initially feel towards them. If we\nourselves stand in so much need of mercy, how can we be hard on others? Shame,\nmeanwhile, can lead to a festering fear, anger, and self-protection. In my\nstepfather\u2019s case, I am convinced that much of his anger was the only way he\nknew to protect himself from the painful shame that he felt. He was terrified\nthat none of us would love him if we knew the real him. So when he felt his\nshame most deeply, he raged the most violently. There are others who see their anger\nand rage as unacceptable emotions. So they turn instead to self-righteousness,\njudgment, or passive aggression. Both kinds of anger (active and passive) can\ncover over our fear and shame, rather than facing them truthfully. Both can\nbecome toxic and destructive in their own way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Compunction is truth-telling about ourselves, whereas shame is laden with lies. Compunction refuses to deny or rationalize or minimize the ugliness of our sins. We have sinned; we have harmed relationships with God and others and self; and we \u201ctake full responsibility\u201d \u2013 not by saying those words as a clich\u00e9 but by actually confessing our sins, asking for help from God and others, and sincerely surrendering ourselves to radical change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Literally, \u201ccompunction\u201d denotes poking with a stick. In this case, a stinky stick. Any time we find ourselves puffing up with a false inflation of our ego, we have the memory of our sins to burst our bubble and keep us grounded in true humility. But this only works if it goes hand-in-hand with an unshakable confidence in God\u2019s Fatherhood. We can we become \u201cfirmly rooted in love\u201d (Ephesians 3:17), fertilized and nourished by an authentic compunction and humility. It is then that the real growth in Christ begins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How on earth does this relate to the story of the stooped woman? I\u2019ll finish that thought next time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n NOTE: This remarkable homily of Gregory the Great was given on June 10, 591<\/em>. If you are a Patristic nerd, you can find the original Latin text in SC 522: 252-266 or PL 76,<\/a> 1227-1232. If you don’t read Latin, there is an English translation in this book<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" **DISCLAIMER \u2013 If you do not enjoy a little earthy humor, then this post may not be for you** Pope Gregory the Great was a legendary preacher. But he gave at least one crappy homily. That is to say, he gave a homily in which dung was a featured metaphor. How, you might ask, did … <\/p>\n