Empower

For any situation to be truly just, it cannot consist of power differentials, power plays. The only way that balance can exist, for everyone to be treated with equity and regard is for those who hold a majority of power to give some of it up, empowering those who have little or none. Jesus says, the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers – they own heaven and the earth! Not by wielding power over others. They do so through poverty of spirit (not controlling, managing others); they mourn over lost relationships; they are merciful. They see God. “If the nature of love is unity and evolution is process toward greater unity, then sin is resistance to unity.” Ilia Delio God is clear about our responsibility to our relationships – all of them – even the ones we didn’t know we were supposed to have. Especially the ones we didn’t know we were supposed to have! The phrase attributed to Hildegard is incredibly apt: sin is living in the exile of unrelatedness. Exiled from the garden because we don’t trust the other in the relationship, we form our own prejudices toward the other – when we didn’t even know we were naked! We didn’t even know there was a difference – back when we were living in unity, back when we took responsibility for one another. We choose to eat the fruit each time we choose to make the knowledge of outward difference a point of division, of exiling ourselves from each other. And we choose it again. And again. Still, Jesus chooses us. And he chooses us again. And again. Beckons us. Calls us to a better way: Love. And the nature of Love is unity. God chose what is foolish… so that no one might boast in the presence of God… Because if I boast in the presence of God – or in the presence of anyone else, which is the same thing (God in you, and all that) – I am making a distinction, distinguishing myself as something other – and another as something less, lacking. Foolishness only seems foolish to those who need to feel more important. Foolishness looks stupid because power is no longer important. Only love. Only the relationship. Foolishness looks foolish because, despite the fact that you might have hurt me or I’ve let you down, we choose each other. And we choose each other again. And again. And again. Because we are called to each other. A just calling. read more