Poverty of Spirit is a short little reflection book written by Johannes Baptist Metz. I have found it to be very insightful and meaningful on by journey of embracing the gift being human and becoming human.
In light of the genesis narrative, I believe the author has pertinent words for us all:
"Becoming a human being involves more than conception and birth. It is a mandate and a mission, a command and a decision. We each have an open-ended relationship with ourselves. We do not possess our being unchallenged; we can not take our being for granted as God does...We are challenged and questioned from the depths of our boundless spirit. Being is entrusted to us as a summons...From the very start we are something that can Be, a being who must win selfhood and decide what it is to be. We must fully become what we are-a human being. To become human through the exercise of our freedom-that is the law of our Being.
The truth of our "being" is such that it makes our freedom possible rather than threatening it. Thus, the free process of becoming a human being unfolds as a process of service. In biblical terms it is "obedience" and faithfulness to the humanity entrusted to us.
However, this process of freely becoming human has its own inherent temptation. By its very nature this process is a trial; imbedded in it is the danger of going awry. Entrusted with the task of becoming human, we face danger at every side. We are always a potential rebel. We can secretly betray the humanity entrusted to us, and we have done this precisely from the very beginning...
On the other hand, we may withstand this temptation and lovingly accept the truth of our being."
What is that truth: it is a gift given and entrusted to each of us by the hand of God. To honor the giver, we must allow Him to guide us on the path of truly becoming human.
We must allow Jesus to put his fingers into our ears and touch our tongue and say the words we long to hear, "ephphatha!" that is "be opened!" Thent we might truly hear the words of God and live in obedience to them and thus truly become who we were made to be, sons in the Son, children of the Most High.
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