{"id":19604,"date":"2020-12-14T09:56:50","date_gmt":"2020-12-14T14:56:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=19604"},"modified":"2020-12-14T10:28:57","modified_gmt":"2020-12-14T15:28:57","slug":"giving-away-every-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=19604","title":{"rendered":"Giving Away Every Gift"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Self-Emptying<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cac.org\/giving-away-every-gift-2020-12-14\/\"><strong>Giving Away Every Gift<\/strong><\/a><br><strong>Monday, December 14, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pxce-adAEkk\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p><em>A focus on self-emptying or \u201cletting go\u201d might seem like a call to self-denial or \u201cmaking do with less,\u201d but as Cynthia Bourgeault points out in her description of Jesus\u2019 teaching, it can also lead to radical generosity and abundance. When we cling to less\u2014of our possessions and even our lives\u2014we are free to give it away for the sake of others.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[Jesus] certainly called us to dying to self, but his idea of dying to self was not through inner renunciation or guarding the purity of his being but through radically squandering everything he had and was. John the Baptist\u2019s disciples were horrified because he banqueted, drank, and danced. The Pharisees were horrified because he healed on the Sabbath and kept company with women and disreputables, people known to be impure. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What seemed disconcerting to nearly everybody was the messy, freewheeling largeness of his spirit. Abundance and a generosity bordering on extravagant seemed to be the signatures of both his teaching and his personal style. . . . When he feeds the multitudes at the Sea of Galilee, there is not merely enough to go around; the leftovers fill twelve baskets [John 6:13]. When a woman anoints him with expensive ointment and the disciples grumble about the waste, he affirms, \u201cTruly, I tell you, wherever this good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her\u201d (Matthew 26:13). He seems not to count the cost; in fact, he specifically forbids counting the cost. \u201cDo not store up treasures on earth,\u201d he teaches; do not strive or be afraid\u2014 \u201cfor it is your Father\u2019s good pleasure to give you the kingdom\u201d (Luke 12:32). All will come of its own accord in good time and with abundant fullness, so long as one does not attempt to hoard or cling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is a path he himself walked to the very end. In the garden of Gethsemane, with his betrayers and accusers massing at the gates, he struggled and anguished but remained true to his course. Do not hoard, do not cling\u2014not even to life itself. Let it go, let it be\u2014 \u201cNot my will but yours be done, O Lord. Into your hands I commend my spirit.\u201d [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Richard again: Jesus came into the world and gave himself fully into a poor life and a humiliating death. As Cynthia writes, he was \u201csquandering himself\u201d [2], which is really what the entire Trinity does: each self-emptying into the other! He revealed the poverty of God, who gives everything away. Yet most of us would probably not think of God as poor at all.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Self-Emptying<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Less\nIs More<\/strong><br>\nSunday, \u202fDecember 13,\n2020<br>\n<em>Third Sunday of Advent<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Have\namong yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus,<\/em><em><br>\nwho, though he was in the form\nof God,<br>\ndid not regard equality with\nGod something to be grasped.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rather, he\nemptied himself,<\/em><em><br>\ntaking the form of a slave,<br>\ncoming in human likeness;<br>\nand found human in appearance,<br>\nhe humbled himself,<br>\nbecoming obedient to death,<br>\neven death on a cross.<\/em>&nbsp;(Philippians 2:5\u20138)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Kenosis<\/em>, which means \u201cletting go\u201d\nor \u201cself-emptying,\u201d is clearly the way of Jesus. My spiritual father Saint\nFrancis of Assisi lived <em>kenosis<\/em>&nbsp;passionately, and it is key to my own\nteaching. I believe <em>all great\nspirituality is about letting go<\/em>. Yet many associate letting go with Buddhism more than\nwith Christianity. Sadly, Christianity seems to have become more about \u201csaving\nyour soul\u201d or what some now call \u201cspiritual capitalism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Francis\nof Assisi (1182\u20131226) profoundly understood this Gospel reversal. He let go of\nhis life in the upper class and joyfully lived in solidarity with those at the\nbottom, especially the sick and the poor. But you and I have grown up with a\ncapitalist and individualistic worldview, not a Gospel or Franciscan worldview.\nThat doesn\u2019t make us bad or entirely wrong. But it has severely limited our\nspiritual understanding\u2014and Christianity\u2019s power to transform culture and\nhistory. We tend to think that \u201cmore for me\u201d is naturally better. South African\nDominican writer Albert Nolan viewed our Western crisis of meaning with\nclarity:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The cultural\nideal of the Western industrialized world is the self-made, self-sufficient, autonomous\nindividual who stands by himself or herself, not needing anyone else . . . and\nnot beholden to anyone for anything. . . . This is the ideal that people live\nand work for. It is their goal in life, and they will sacrifice anything to\nachieve it. This is how you \u201cget a life for yourself.\u201d This is how you discover\nyour identity. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There have been\nplenty of people in the past with inflated egos\u2014kings, conquerors, and other\ndictators\u2014but in the Western world today the cultivation of the ego is seen as\nthe ideal for everyone. Individualism permeates almost everything we do. It is\na basic assumption. It is like a cult. We worship the ego. [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\nour consumer culture, even religion and spirituality have very often become a\nmatter of addition: earning points with God, attaining enlightenment, producing\nmoral behavior. Yet authentic spirituality is not about getting, attaining,\nachieving, performing, or succeeding\u2014all of which tend to pander to the ego. It\nis much more about letting go\u2014letting go of what we don\u2019t need anyway, although\nwe don\u2019t know that ahead of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\ngreat Dominican mystic Meister Eckhart (1260\u20121328) said, \u201cGod is not found in the soul\nby adding anything, but by a process of subtraction.\u201d&nbsp;[2] True spiritual wisdom reveals that <em>less is more<\/em>. Jesus taught this, and the holy ones always discover it\nin one way or another. Think of the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Dorothy Day,\nand the generations of nuns, friars, and monks who intentionally took a \u201cvow of\npoverty.\u201d I did so myself in 1965.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sadly, like so many things that we call Christianity, we find that if we scratch right beneath the surface, it isn\u2019t very much of Christianity; it\u2019s just our local religious culture. Thankfully, there is a real longing today to clarify what is of Christ, what is essential Gospel, and what is historical or denominational accident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-1 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"244\" src=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-14-at-10.28.22-AM-500x244.png\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"19607\" data-link=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?attachment_id=19607\" class=\"wp-image-19607\" srcset=\"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-14-at-10.28.22-AM-500x244.png 500w, https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-14-at-10.28.22-AM-300x146.png 300w, https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-14-at-10.28.22-AM-768x375.png 768w, https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-14-at-10.28.22-AM.png 1874w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Self-Emptying Giving Away Every GiftMonday, December 14, 2020 A focus on self-emptying or \u201cletting go\u201d might seem like a call to self-denial or \u201cmaking do with less,\u201d but as Cynthia Bourgeault points out in her description of Jesus\u2019 teaching, it can also lead to radical generosity and abundance. When we cling to less\u2014of our possessions [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19604"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19604"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19608,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19604\/revisions\/19608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}