The False or True You?

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When writing about this subject I know I’m at risk of engaging in amateur psychology. Yes, the theme is evident in the writings of psychologists like Karl Jung and Viktor Frankl, but the intent of this blog is to throw some light on a constant thread of Christian spiritual writers who warn about “the false self.”

Simply, the false self is the self that is built around ego, status, fear, approval, or illusion rather than one’s deepest identity in God. The term itself is especially associated with contemporary contemplative spirituality, but related ideas go back centuries.

The writings of St. Augustin, Meister Eckhart, St. John of the Cross and St. Theresa of Avila are among those centuries-old treasures. But their themes have been taken up by more modern writers like Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen and Thomas Keating.

True to Ourselves

They all advocate for the primacy of the “true self,” which is easier to write and talk about than to become. Most of us, including those who have merely an inkling about efforts to establish an identity in God, struggle with being true to ourselves while we adapt easily to the false self.

I mention above the spiritual writers who have covered the topic but the idea of becoming our true self is first and foremost a biblical concept. Catholics caught a hint of the idea in a recent gospel reading at weekend masses.

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In the Gospel of John, Jesus mystifies his disciples once again by declaring, “…I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows him. But you know him, because he remains with you, and will be in you. …I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my father and you are in me and I in you.”

This is about what spiritual writers have referred to as “the indwelling of the Holy Spirit” or “union with God.”

It is, in my opinion, what all Christians yearn for and should pursue, even though we understand that we are subject to all the limitations of humans, including those mentioned above that are built around ego.

I write often about Catholic social teachings because I believe they are not on the periphery of Christian faith but at its core. When the Hebrew lawyer asks Jesus about what he must do to “inherit eternal life” - in other words, what’s the most important teaching on what will bring me to God – Jesus asks what the lawyer has read in the Hebrew Scriptures.

The Greatest Commandments

The lawyer quotes the Shema, the greatest commandments, to love God and neighbor. Then the lawyer, exhibiting the false self in “wanting to justify himself,” asks, “And who is my neighbor?” That’s when Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan, which I’m sure most of you know.

So, being a “good Samaritan” is central to being a Christian, but it flows from efforts to establish and maintain a relationship with God. And that requires some effort in daily prayer. For me and many Christians, it happens through centering prayer – which requires a daily period of solitude and silence.

Prayer, and the caring for others that flows from it, is the medicine that helps Christians prevent reliance on the false self and maximize the true self. And you can’t be successful in the search for God without relating to God and being selfless, generous and compassionate to the God present in all human beings.