Despite zero belief in, and considerable reservations about, this season's story,
I quote from an
excellent Maundy Thursday sermon by Simon Taylor:
“...I was speaking with a friend of a friend, a retired priest ...
“You need to cultivate the skin of a rhinoceros”, he told me. I
think it was possibly the worst piece of advice I was ever given as a
parish priest.
[… … …]
All of our ministry is [...] founded in being truly human. To be
good ministers, we need to be good human beings. And this is where
it gets hard, for so much of what we do as human beings and as
ministers, is designed to hide our humanity. We are too good at
wearing armour that protects us, but that distorts us at the same
time.
[… … …]
The first piece of armour to refuse is that of the thick skin.”
Belief or lack of it has nothing to do with recognising the stark
truth of that “so much of what we do as human beings ... is
designed to hide our humanity”. Amen.
2 comments:
There is so much truth and beauty in this post!
We're probably the most highly social species on the planet. We rely and revel in our social spheres, however they are comprised. Yet we're also so terrified of revealing our flaws and doing everything we can to hide them. Scared that ones we admire will reject us if only they knew.. saw.. found someone better.. smarter... more worthy...
Yet the hiding, the fear, and all the baggage that entails are the very things that hurt those relationships. Another time I'll make that sound more elegant and less 'self-help tips for the socially anxious' bargain bin! The point is valid.
My own fears of looking stupid and being rejected or scorned almost made me delete this without posting, then I realised I'd be proving my own point, but not in the good way. Haha, tricksy human frailties!
W> My own fears of looking stupid
W> and being rejected or scorned
W> almost made me delete this
W> without posting...
We all know that feeling only too well, I think, Will.
Glad you overcame it: good on ya :-)
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