An old Franciscan understood the theocentric character of genuine humility and offered this counsel:
“If you feel the call of the spirit, then be holy with all your soul, with all your heart, and with all your strength. If however, because of human weakness, you cannot be holy, then be perfect with all your soul, with all your heart, and with all your strength.
But if you cannot be perfect because of the vanity of your life, then be good with all your soul…Yet, If you cannot be good because of the trickery of the evil One, then be wise with all your soul…
If, in the end, you can neither be holy, nor perfect, nor good, nor wise because of the weight of your sins, then carry this weight before God and surrender your life to his divine mercy.
If you do this, without bitterness, with all humility, and with a joyous spirit due to the tenderness of a God who loves the sinful and ungrateful, then you will begin to feel what it is to be wise, you will learn what it is to be good, you will slowly aspire to be perfect, and finally you will long to be holy”
An exert from “Ruthless Trust” by Brennan Manning
Friday, June 30, 2006
Thursday, June 22, 2006
syncretism
Main Entry: syn·cre·tism Pronunciation: 'si[ng]-kr&-"ti-z&m, 'sin-Function: nounEtymology: New Latin syncretismus, from Greek synkrEtismos federation of Cretan cities, from syn- + KrEt-, KrEs Cretan1 : the combination of different forms of belief or practice2 : the fusion of two or more orig. different inflectional forms
You tell me to trust, yet instruct me to invest
You say to live by the spirit, but to always plan ahead
How does this work? Recently I have been thinking about what ‘Trust’ means and more importantly what it looks like to trust in the one who we clam to believe in. I come from an upper middle class family and we have always had more that what we need. There has never been a day that I have not had food in my stomach or a roof over my head and I am indeed thankful for that.
I am getting older and the reality of this is starting to set in. The mentality of “I am going to live forever and I am going to do something incredible with my life” is starting to come to perdition. What am I going to be about? What does the God desire of me in my short time in this life? The answers to these questions I do not know, but there is something within me that is troubled.
I have often found myself examining my faith, ideals and practices with a great amount of skepticisms. It is this reason I have introduced the word syncretism. In my time in Bolivia I had a unique opportunity to see the mixing of belief very clearly. Bolivia would say they are about 60% Roman Catholic, but there is a unique twist. Because of a lack of clergy over the past 100 or more years there has been a mixing with the Incan beliefs and tradition and with the Catholic beliefs. This, by definition would be syncretism because they are mixing two different believes and making them into one big jumbled mess (in my opinion).
It was clear for me to see this while I was in Bolivia, but as of late I have wondered about the syncretism with me. There are times when I wonder if it is more difficult to see because the thing that we are mixing is something that we love. (Which make since because if we did not value you it we would not care to mix with it) What if what Christians in this country are mixing the teaching of Christ with other ideas that are not his, or maybe even directly contrary, but we accept them because we don’t know any better. What if we are not called to a comfortable life? What if following Jesus indeed meant that we would love the “least of these”? In America we do all that is within our powers to keep ourselves safe. We buy insurance, we live in the “nice” part of town, we make sure that tithing is not going to interrupt our purchase of new clothing. I don’t know. I don’t understand how this works.
Do you?
You tell me to trust, yet instruct me to invest
You say to live by the spirit, but to always plan ahead
How does this work? Recently I have been thinking about what ‘Trust’ means and more importantly what it looks like to trust in the one who we clam to believe in. I come from an upper middle class family and we have always had more that what we need. There has never been a day that I have not had food in my stomach or a roof over my head and I am indeed thankful for that.
I am getting older and the reality of this is starting to set in. The mentality of “I am going to live forever and I am going to do something incredible with my life” is starting to come to perdition. What am I going to be about? What does the God desire of me in my short time in this life? The answers to these questions I do not know, but there is something within me that is troubled.
I have often found myself examining my faith, ideals and practices with a great amount of skepticisms. It is this reason I have introduced the word syncretism. In my time in Bolivia I had a unique opportunity to see the mixing of belief very clearly. Bolivia would say they are about 60% Roman Catholic, but there is a unique twist. Because of a lack of clergy over the past 100 or more years there has been a mixing with the Incan beliefs and tradition and with the Catholic beliefs. This, by definition would be syncretism because they are mixing two different believes and making them into one big jumbled mess (in my opinion).
It was clear for me to see this while I was in Bolivia, but as of late I have wondered about the syncretism with me. There are times when I wonder if it is more difficult to see because the thing that we are mixing is something that we love. (Which make since because if we did not value you it we would not care to mix with it) What if what Christians in this country are mixing the teaching of Christ with other ideas that are not his, or maybe even directly contrary, but we accept them because we don’t know any better. What if we are not called to a comfortable life? What if following Jesus indeed meant that we would love the “least of these”? In America we do all that is within our powers to keep ourselves safe. We buy insurance, we live in the “nice” part of town, we make sure that tithing is not going to interrupt our purchase of new clothing. I don’t know. I don’t understand how this works.
Do you?
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