Saturday, June 29, 2013
Gleanings from "The Wounded Healer", Henri Nouwen.
In this section, Henri Nouwen shared precious nuggets on the roles that ask for special attention in a world of the rootless generation.
1. The minister as the articulator of inner events
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The key word here is "articulation." Those who can articulate the movements of their inner lives, who can give names to their varied experiences, need no longer be victims of themselves, but are able slowly and consistently to remove the obstacles that prevent the spirit from entering. They are able to create space for the Spirit whose heart is greater than their own, whose eyes see more than their own, and whose hand can heal more than their own.
This articulation, I believe, is the basis for a spiritual leadership of the future, because only those who are able to articulate their own experiences can offer themselves to others as sources of clarifications. Christian leaders are, therefore, first of all, those who are willing to put their own articulated faith at the disposal of those who ask for help. In this sense they are servants of servants, because they are the first to enter the promised but dangerous land, the first to tell those who are afraid what they themselves have seen, heard, and touched.
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So the first and most basic task of contemporary Christian leader is to lead people out of the land of confusion into the land of hope. Therefore they must first have the courage to be explorers of the new territory within themselves and to articulate their discoveries as a service to the inward generations.
2. Compassion
By speaking about articulation as a form of leadership, we have already suggested the place where the future leader will stand. Not "up there", far away or secretly hidden, but in the midst of people, with the utmost visibility.
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Compassion must be the core, and even the nature, of authority. Christian leaders are people of God only insofar as they are able to make the compassion of God with humanity - which is visible in Jesus Christ - credible in their own world.
Compassionate leaders stand in the midst of their people but do not get caught in the conformist forces of the peer group, because through their compassion they are able to avoid the distance of pity as well as the exclusiveness of sympathy. Compassion is born when we discover in the centre of our own existence, not only that God is God and humans are humans, but also that our neighbor really is our fellow human being.
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This compassion is authority because it does not tolerate the pressures of the in-group, but breaks through the boundaries between languages and countries, rich and poor, educated and illiterate. This compassion pulls people away from the fearful clique into the larger world where they can see that every human face is the face of a neighbor. Thus the authority of compassion is the possibility for each of us to forgive our brothers and sisters, because forgiveness is only real for those who have discovered the weakness of their friends and the sins of their enemies in their own hearts, and are willing to call each human being their sister and brother.
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This brings us to the final characteristic of Christian leaders. If they are to be not just one in a long row of professionals who try to help people with their specific skills, if they are really to be agents leading from confusion to hope and from chaos to harmony, they must be not only articulate and compassionate, not contemplative at heart as well.
3. The minister as a contemplative critic
... contemporary Christian ministers can in no way be considered those who are concerned only with hepling individuals to adapt themselves to a demanding world. In fact, Christian leaders who are able to be critical contemplatives are revolutionaries in the most real sense. Because by testing all they see, hear, and touch for its evangelical authenticity, they are able to change the course of history and lead their people away from panic-stricken convulsions to the creative action that would make a better world.
They do not shoulder every protest sign in order to be in with those who express their frustrations more than their ideas, nor do they easily join those asking for more protection, more police, more discipline, and more order. But they do look critically at what is going on and make decisions based on insight into their own vocation, not on the desire for popularity or the fear of rejection. They criticise the protesters as well as the rest seekers when their motives are false and their objectives dubious.
Comtemplatives are not needy or greedy for human contact, but are guided by a vision of what they have seen beyond the trivial concerns of a possessive world. They do not bounce up and down with the fashions of the moment, because they are in contact with what is basic, central, and ultimate. ... they constantly invite their fellow human beings to ask real, often painful and upsetting questions, to look behind the surface of charming behavior, and to take away all the obstacles that prevent us from getting to the heart of the matter.
Contemplative critics take away the illusory mask of the manipulative world and have the courage to show what the true situation is. They know that they may be considered to be foolish, mad, a danger to society and a threat to the human race. But they are not afraid to die, since their vision makes them transcend the difference between life and death and makes them free to do what has to be done here and now, notwithstanding the risks involved.
More than anything else, they look for signs of hope and promise if the situation in which they find themselves. Contemplative critics have the sensibility to notice the small mustard seed and the trust to believe that "when it has grown it is the biggest shrub of all and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and shelter in its branches (Matt 13:31-32). They know that there is hope for a better world in the future the signs must be visible in the present, and they will never curse the now in favour of the later.
2:08 PM
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