Men as Mentors - Richard Rohr and Sergio Milandri - Part 9

Start with three minutes of silence or a piece of evocative music..

Part 9 Pioneering Ourselves

We have been talking about being pioneers and adventurers. The usual response to this (after we have got over the initial disturbing realisation that we may be stagnating) is, “Oh. Ok. Wow! Good idea! Where do we start? What shall we do and where?”
But the rather disturbing answer is that its not out there. It’s not far away or in some other new context. The challenge is facing myself. For each of us, “I am the unknown, the one that I need to pioneer and explore, to journey into and to grasp.” Do I dare?

Within our very selves are the demons we need to face, the deprivations we need to suffer, the idealised solutions that need to be grounded and earthed and the false games that need to become real. We choose from our best and worst self.

Paul was the archetypal zealot. He had the zeal of a superman fixer-upper. He was motivated, no, he was driven to rid his society of Christians. He went from place to place with warrants authorising him to arrest and kill any suspected of following “The Way” as Christians were called. He felt he was a lion of God, but he was hopelessly on the wrong track. With all his rightness, drive and courage, he was going in exactly the opposite direction. God had to throw him off his horse and to ask him what he thought he was doing. Through a series of events God led him through a transformation process over 14 years in obscurity till he was eventually pointing in the right direction. (Read the account in Acts 8 and 9.) Through this he became a real lion of God and had a profound impact on his world and ours.

What about us? Which direction are we pointing in? What are we crusading or are we just maintenance people, trying to keep our little world together? We would not be doing this inner work if we were, but nonetheless, what does it mean to face our own demons? What are they? So much of our way of seeing is clouded by habit.

We spoke of building highways last week. What highways are under construction in yourself? How available and accessible are you really to yourself? What major areas are you exploring and opening up where you can make a new bed to lie in? Are you expanding or diminishing? Are you growing or dying back? Where are the wild and primitive parts being befriended and partnered? Are you there to colonise or domesticate those parts to expand your influence and confirm the supremacy of your false outer self or are you willing to learn new ways of being real? Can you become poor and weak and learn from the marginalised? Can your inner development regress to the simplicity and directness of a child?

Remember that what we see of our lives is not all there is: it is only what we have grown accustomed to and sadly, usually what we want to keep that way. We need others and their challenges to how we see ourselves to get in touch with our bigger self. We need to open the debate about ourselves to those who know us, both those who will affirm us and to those who will challenge us.

Reflection (10 minutes in silence)
What do you fight and deny in yourself? Where do you not want to go?

Journal (10 minutes.)

Write down some of your feelings. You may not believe your memory tomorrow.
Connect with each other in the group. Share some of your gut sense about this.

This week. Reflect on your inhabited self and start some expeditions to your wild self. Read chapter 10 of Richard Rohr’s “From Wild Man to Wise Man”