If we desire God and holiness, we must make ourselves the servants of the humble and powerless. If we want to be his Presence for others, we must embrace our own spiritual poverty as well. Follow this link for my homily for this weekend.
Brother Charles, I left a comment on your Praise and Bless site about the homily itself, but I am wondering if you will address something associated with your opening comment on this post: power. You say we must become humble and powerless (and I have no disagreement with that). Humility is quite difficult to achieve. Real humility, I mean. People call me humble, and I know I am not. Not real humility -- have a long way to go yet, but that I suppose is between God and me. The question I have is on the powerlessness bit. I have found that, especially when you work in a position of power (such as a supervisor), the more power you give away (delegate to others or simply don't take to yourself), the more your real power grows. How does one reach the level of powerlessness needed to be a good disciple? How do you get past the dilemma of giving away power = growth in power. (And unfortunately, that creates a problem with humility, as well.) We all live life on at least two levels: professional work and spirituality. How does one to whom human power is given mesh the two because I cannot believe that they should be separated? I find I can do it at times with God's help, but I also find it a very, very difficult thing. Do you have any insights?
5 comments:
Wonderful and thought-provoking homily. I am recommending on my blog for others.
Blessings and thanksgiving,
Abbey
It's good to meet you Abbey. Thank you for the encouragement!
Brother Charles, I left a comment on your Praise and Bless site about the homily itself, but I am wondering if you will address something associated with your opening comment on this post: power. You say we must become humble and powerless (and I have no disagreement with that). Humility is quite difficult to achieve. Real humility, I mean. People call me humble, and I know I am not. Not real humility -- have a long way to go yet, but that I suppose is between God and me. The question I have is on the powerlessness bit. I have found that, especially when you work in a position of power (such as a supervisor), the more power you give away (delegate to others or simply don't take to yourself), the more your real power grows. How does one reach the level of powerlessness needed to be a good disciple? How do you get past the dilemma of giving away power = growth in power. (And unfortunately, that creates a problem with humility, as well.) We all live life on at least two levels: professional work and spirituality. How does one to whom human power is given mesh the two because I cannot believe that they should be separated? I find I can do it at times with God's help, but I also find it a very, very difficult thing. Do you have any insights?
I thought I left a comment yesterday, but I guess not. Anyway I wanted to say I enjoyed reading your homily.
Thanks Don; I thought you had too! Thanks as always for the good example.
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