How well do we see ourselves?

Self-knowledge isn’t always welcome. We prefer to think well of ourselves, so if that requires a little trip to “the land of denial” now and again, it can’t be helped. Or can it? In the fourth century, when future saint Paulinus was a pen pal to Saints Augustine, Jerome, and Martin of Tours, clear-eyed self-awareness was considered a prerequisite to Christian life. Those men threw off all pretense of self-importance in favor of the truth. “Truth will reveal its face to you and unlock to you your own person,” Paulinus wrote. Abandon the mask. Become who you were born to be.