Self-Control that Is Mindful of Others
Maundy Thursday – April 2, 2015
ON A FEAST DAY IN CELLIA, brothers gathered to eat a meal at church. One of them told a server, “I do not eat anything that has been cooked. I only eat salted food.”
The server called out to another, “This brother does not eat cooked food! Bring him some salt.”
One of the brothers told the one on the restricted diet, “You would have done better to eat meat alone in your cell today than to have had this announced in front of everyone.”
[Bernard Bangley, By Way of the Desert, p. 355]
The spiritual practice of self-control reminds me that my own will and desire is not the defining context for life. Certainly it is one context for life, just not the only one.
The story of MY life is always lived out in the context of the story of OUR life . . . whatever the “our” may be for you and me. “Our life” may include family, church, community, and work . . . but it also includes “our life” as a human family, who you are and who I am as a part of the larger human race.
Because the way I live my life always takes place in the context of the larger “our life,” I cannot make decisions that only impact me. All my choices also impact others, both those near me and those I don’t know.
Self-control, then, invites me to live, decide, and relate mindful of the connections I have to others, to “OUR life.” If I make decisions that are entirely self-serving, I may do harm to someone else in the wider community, even if I don’t intend to do so.
In fact, my personal definition of spirituality says that the spiritual life is about a deepening connection with God that makes a difference in who we are with God, self, others, and the created world.
In the end, “my life” always exists within the context of “our life.” And further, “our life” exists within the context of God’s story or God’s desire for the world.
If my vision is limited to “my life” – whether my food is salted or unsalted – then my vision is too small.
ON A FEAST DAY IN CELLIA, brothers gathered to eat a meal at church. One of them told a server, “I do not eat anything that has been cooked. I only eat salted food.”
The server called out to another, “This brother does not eat cooked food! Bring him some salt.”
One of the brothers told the one on the restricted diet, “You would have done better to eat meat alone in your cell today than to have had this announced in front of everyone.”
[Bernard Bangley, By Way of the Desert, p. 355]
The spiritual practice of self-control reminds me that my own will and desire is not the defining context for life. Certainly it is one context for life, just not the only one.
The story of MY life is always lived out in the context of the story of OUR life . . . whatever the “our” may be for you and me. “Our life” may include family, church, community, and work . . . but it also includes “our life” as a human family, who you are and who I am as a part of the larger human race.
Because the way I live my life always takes place in the context of the larger “our life,” I cannot make decisions that only impact me. All my choices also impact others, both those near me and those I don’t know.
Self-control, then, invites me to live, decide, and relate mindful of the connections I have to others, to “OUR life.” If I make decisions that are entirely self-serving, I may do harm to someone else in the wider community, even if I don’t intend to do so.
In fact, my personal definition of spirituality says that the spiritual life is about a deepening connection with God that makes a difference in who we are with God, self, others, and the created world.
In the end, “my life” always exists within the context of “our life.” And further, “our life” exists within the context of God’s story or God’s desire for the world.
If my vision is limited to “my life” – whether my food is salted or unsalted – then my vision is too small.
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