Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States - Center for Action and Contemplation - Father Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation "The Power of Powerlessness" for Thursday, 3 April 2014

Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States - Center for Action and Contemplation - Father Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation "The Power of Powerlessness" for Thursday, 3 April 2014
We don’t break through and transform history from the top, but from the bottom. 
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
"The Path of Descent" 
"The Power of Powerlessness"
Thursday, 3 April 2014
Paul’s expectations of the Messiah, and therefore of who God is, are turned absolutely upside down. Remember, the Jews have been an oppressed, occupied people. They’re never on the top. They’ve been waiting and waiting for some great, historic figure who is going to liberate them: who is going to stand up to Rome, to Egypt and to Syria. They are longing for the Anointed One, the Christ, the Messiah, who would finally give them some dignity in human history.
But in his Christ experience on the Damascus Road (Acts 9: 3-8), the One that Paul encounters is a crucified loser! This is no military figure. This is someone who was crucified outside the city walls in the manner that slaves were killed. Paul had to utterly redefine what power is, what leadership is, what this new reality is that God is bringing us into. Clearly, God descended to get to us; we did not climb a ladder of righteousness to get to God!
Therefore, Paul idealizes not power, but powerlessness. “When I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10). “I glory in nothing except in the cross of Christ” (Galatians 6:14). Is he a masochist? No, he’s found what he calls “the mystery that has been hidden since the beginning of time” (1 Corinthians 2:7): that we don’t break through and transform history from the top, but from the bottom.
Adapted from Great Themes of Paul: Life as Participation (CD)
Gateway to Silence: When I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:10)
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