Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path. (Psalm 119)
Genesis 11:1-9 Ever since Adam and Eve chose ‘upward mobility’, by eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the default of human nature is to climb the ladder of success. Perched up in my own tower of fame and fortune, I can securely survey and control all that I call my own. Only when I look to God and realize my true identity do I realize that I am actually trapped within my tower of power. Just as the Lord brought humanity down from the tower of Babel to be scattered (like the sower’s seed) abroad on the face of the earth, so Christ taught meekness and ‘downward mobility’ to release us from the bondage of humanly assumed power and control. Am I ready to allow the Holy Spirit of God to release me from my own dizzying heights? Can I follow Jesus downward from prideful security into the arms of the world to find salvation in the humility of mercy, both received and given? Lord God, bring me down from my tower of power. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? (Mark 8:36) The way of Jesus is radically different. It is the way not of upward mobility but of downward mobility. It is going to the bottom, staying behind the sets, and choosing the last place! Why is the way of Jesus worth choosing? Because it is the way to the Kingdom, the way Jesus took, and the way that brings everlasting life. Henri Nouwen, The SelflessWay of Christ www.gospelmysteryoftheday.ca Soli gloriam dei
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AuthorBeverly Illauq lives in Kemptville, Ontario, where she greets each morning by seeking the Gospel Mystery of the Day - the Word of the Lord for direct and practical application to the specific challenges & joys of the day. Archives
March 2024
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