KENOSIS: GOD'S SELF EMPTYING

 May we respond generously

to this God's great Love for us!

GOD'S GRACE IN VIA NEGATIVA SPIRITUALITY

First Century steps leading [from] the Upper City [of Jerusalem] (detail). Photo by © Ferrell Jenkins.

Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation The Path of Descent The Theme of Themes Sunday, March 30, 2014

The Path of Descent is the theme of themes, the metanarrative of the Bible. It is so obvious and so consistent and so constant that it’s hidden in plain sight. Yet we’ve overlooked this overwhelmingly obvious message by focusing on other things. Why did that happen? How were we that capable of missing what appears to be the major point? I think it has to do with the Spirit working in history and growing us up historically; I think it has to do with maturity and readiness; and I think it has to do with ego. Once Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire (around the year 313), and the clergy and the nobility banded together to protect the top, it became all about ascent, not descent. That suits the ego just fine; it much prefers winning to losing. God isn’t really the great theme of the Bible. God isn’t really taught in the Bible; God is assumed. There’s never any question that there is a Transcendent Other. The problem is how to remain in contact with this Transcendence. That becomes what I call the Way of Descent. Just think: Exodus and Exile. There’s the entire Hebrew Scripture in two words. It’s all about a people in exodus; and then, when they get over exodus and try to settle down, God leads them into exile. Because those are the two places where you are taught, not in being settled. Christians call it the Way of the Cross. The Desert Fathers and Mothers called it the Way of the Desert. In Philippians Paul called it kenosis, the way of self-emptying: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:5-8). Adapted from The Path of Descent (CD, MP3 download) Gateway to Silence: When I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:10)

UNIVERSAL CALL TO HOLINESS

UNIVERSAL CALL TO HOLINESS

As the Catholic Church celebrates the 50 years of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, it is great to remember the foundational magisterial document from "The Dogmatic Constitution of the Church" particularly those that LUMEN GENTIUM (LG) has highlighted to remind all the baptized of a historical church landmark that recognized in the church documents our universal call to holiness: "All in the church, whether they belong to the hierarchy or are cared for it, are called to holiness."(40) 

According to LG, this call to holiness derives its origin and model after its preeminence in the life and ministry of Jesus.  Holiness is a gift from God that Christ bestow in Spirit upon us so that we would be strengthened in manifesting the God's spirit of "compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness and patience" in daily moments of our everyday lives (LG,40,cf. Col 3:12).  

Holiness, as a way of life, is deeply grounded from the greatest commandment of all, i.e., love of God and neighbor (LG, 40).   As such, our life witness, emanates from and is manifested by own actions according to our individual gifts and talents, as we embrace our dynamic calling to live a life of embodied hope and love in our home, work, and in our various ministries in the Church and in the whole of society. As we manifest genuine compassion, kindness and acts love and hospitality to those around us, we gradually become, not just in the closer to created image of but also, in the likeness of Jesus Christ.

One powerful image that the Dogmatic Constitution of the Church uses to invite deeper us into this universal call to holiness, is that of KENOSIS (self-emptying).  In God's desire to dwell with us and among us, God humbly and intimately entered humanity by embracing all our human situations and experiences, even at the point of suffering and death.  

Thus, in Christ's incarnation, God has not only shown us the greatest and penultimate challenge of love - self-emptying, suffering for and laying down his life for his friends.(LG,42) May we be imbued by God's grace to come closer to Christ's example of living and loving life to the fullest! 

In our recalling and our claiming of our universal call to holiness, may we continue to be inspired and to be seized by the Spirit in our desire to respond to our vocational calling, that is, to be a living sign of God's love and holiness in the midst of our own ordinary everyday lives.