LET’S never think that to be inspired and to inspire are
reserved only to a blessed few who are endowed with special charisms or plain
luck. They are a duty we all have, since they are an integral part of our
nature. More than that, it’s a duty that Christ himself
commanded us to do: “Love one another as I have loved you.” (Jn 13,34)
And loving, let us
always remember, is first and last a matter of inspiring, that is, of keeping,
enriching, protecting, defending and spreading the spirit of God who is love
himself, before that spirit is expressed in deeds and revealed by some external
fruits.
We have to be more
aware of the spiritual dimension of our life and diligent in performing our
duties toward it. We should develop the proper skills to identify and act on
our spiritual duties without getting lost in our other duties and
responsibilities that pertain more to the material and earthly dimension of our
life.
To inspire is to
infuse the spirit proper to us, the spirit that gives us life and that animates
our thoughts, desires, words and actions. And that spirit is ultimately nothing
other than the spirit of God who is our Creator and Father. We need to
correspond to the spirit of God. As St. Paul said: “Do not quench the Spirit.”
(1 Thes 5,19)
Let’s always remember that it is God who keeps us in
existence according to his loving providence. It’s He, more than us, who is responsible for our whole
life. Ours is simply to cooperate as freely and as lovingly as possible with
his divine will and ways. And this is what inspiring ourselves and others
involves.
And let’s also remember that we have to be inspired first before
we can dare to inspire others. We cannot give what we do not have.
We should be most
aware of this wonderful truth and correspond to it as best as we can. We should
avoid trivializing the substance of inspiring ourselves and others by reducing
it to a feel-good state only, though this may often come as a result. We have
to be wary of the many false forms of inspiring ourselves and others.
That’s simply because inspiring others may involve suffering,
hard work, making demands on oneself, etc. In fact, these things are
unavoidable given our wounded human condition. And when needed, we should not
be afraid to go through them.
We should not lose
sight of the basic truth that God is always in control of things no matter what
happens in our life. We always have reason to hope. An inspiration that does
not include the cross would not be authentic inspiration.
We have to learn to
inspire ourselves and others properly. For this, we always have to start with
our prayers. That’s because inspiring
ourselves and others is first of all a spiritual function before it manifests
itself in some concrete and material forms.
It starts with
keeping persons always in mind, thinking well of everyone, including our own
selves, in spite of whatever, accepting them as they are and commending them to
God our Father. We have to be wary of our tendency to be immediately hijacked
by some purely human motives in our concern for the others. We should never
consider everyone purely on our own, without God.
We have to go
beyond the level of sentimentalism and the like. We always have to refer them
to God who is actually everything to us. And so, we just have to overcome
whatever awkwardness if not open resistance we may have in our duty to develop
an intimate relation with God.
This is such a
crucial point that when resolved properly can make a big difference in the
lives of everyone and in the world in general. We should frequently ask
ourselves: Am I looking at everyone and everything from the point of view of
faith and in the intimate presence of God, or am I just viewing them from a
purely human point of view—like from the angle of convenience, practicality, or
politics, economics, etc.?
Questions like this
should not be taken for granted, since they help us regain our proper bearing
in life. They frame things most fairly, putting them in their proper
perspective. Otherwise, we will be blinded by our own reasoning and justifications
that no matter how brilliant would lack the most basic and integrating element.
Starting and ending
with God, to be sure, does not undermine our humanity. On the contrary, it
would perfect our humanity.
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