A TEACHING UPON HONOUR

jeanviete (60)in #news • 10 years ago

"Honour is like an island, rugged and without a beach; once we have left it, we can never return." –Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux

This is a famous saying that echoes through the halls of the U.S. Naval Academy, and as a former Naval Cadet, it is a postulate Our Lord grew up with and lived by his entire life.

As he got older, he softened on this stance, because this regimented belief that came so natural to him, left almost everyone he knew bobbing out in the water... He realised that people error, and that otherwise "good people", must be allowed to redeem themselves. He never softened on the importance of personal honour and integrity, he simply softened on the belief that honour, once lost, was impossible to recover... He now believed that those who were genuinely honourable to begin with, would try harder to restore their integrity, and that is something he truly does respect.

"All honour's wounds are self-inflicted."
–Andrew Carnegie

He has often taught this great axiom to those who've served beneath him, in the hope that they would fully realise that violations of honour could never be blamed upon anyone else, and therefore, could not be healed by the actions of anyone else.

"Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching."
–C.S. Lewis

Our Lord is known to say "Honour and integrity are the personal lights we utilise in the dark; it's not something others always see, but that is what makes them so important."... Yet some still foolishly believe that their actions are hidden from The Lord's eyes, simply because he waits for a person to show the integrity of a guilty conscience, by both admitting and correcting their error, without him needing to bring the issue to them.