Chapter Six: The Work of the Kingdom (III)
"The only possible way to move out of our obsessive self-awareness and into the life of Christ is to surrender ourselves and let God be God. Such a surrender involves mining the field of our hearts and searching for this pearl of God's truth hidden deep within us: we belong to God."
"This loving awareness of being the child of the Father moves us out of a life spent pursuing our base desires and frees us to pursue the kingdom of God. We no longer have to live lives bifurcated by our needs. Everything we have and are forms but one self, one heart beating with the lifeblood of Jesus. There can be no firmness of character or consistency of conduct without this courageous self-affirmation. Paul said, 'I no longer lives, but Christ lives in me' (Galatians 2:20). Therein lies transparency."
"So often we are self-moved and self-motivated rather than moved and motivated by the Spirit. When our sense of self is derived from our base desires, we act in ways intended to win approval, avoid criticism, or escape rejection... When we put on the mind of Christ and focus our thinking and behavior on the kingdom of God, we can begin to evaluate our choices, our decisions, and our motivations with new clarity. We move from a place of sleepwalking through our lives and being driven by our most earthbound instincts to a place of living in full consciousness of our position as heirs of the Most High God."
"In some ways, this process of focusing our lives on the mind and work of Jesus involves distancing ourselves from the world around us in an effort to break away from our dysfunctions and addictions. To them we appear foolish and misguided. Thus this kind of focus cannot happen without a daily--even hourly--decision to surrender to the sway of the Spirit."
Manning quotes Ralph Martin: "Very soon in a serious life of faith we must renounce our bondage to darkness, we must be freed from our attachment to those things that hold us back from a pure surrender to the action of God in us. We must live out totally those renunciations we made in our baptism and which we ratify at every Easter Vigil. And it is here we find great difficulty, and meet with the obstacles of selfishness, sensuality, ambition, resentment, pride, fear, etc."
"Our dedication to growth is the single most important determinant of our spiritual development. Without an intense inner commitment, we are little more than dilettantes playing spiritual games. The pearl of great price--the mind of Christ--must be the most treasured value in our lives, and we must seek it in persevering prayer, in sacramental healing, and in the strength of the Christian community. Only then will the miracle of transparency, love, and oneness unfold in our lives... It is God's will that we grow in holiness (1 Thessalonians 4:7), know the truth that makes us free (John 8.:32), and rejoice with a joy that no one can take from us (John 16:22)."
"To think like Jesus is to experience being loved so completely by God that we are existentially incapable of being other than the children of the Father in Jesus Christ. It is overwhelmingly joyful news, and we become overwhelmingly joyful people because of it. We cannot contain it because love by its nature is meant to be shared. We realize that all men and women are loved in the same way but recognize that many are unaware of it. They are locked into loneliness, fear, alienation, apathy, and ignorance. No one has told them of all the things that happened in Jerusalem; they are like sheep without a shepherd."
"Our awareness of God becomes the birthplace of a consuming zeal and a towering desire to 'tell it on the mountain.' We are driven by the Spirit to proclaim by word and example the peace, justice, and forgiving love of our God... It is the loving awareness of God's holiness in Jesus Christ coupled with a deep compassion for redeemed humanity that creates the imperative of Christian mission."
"Everything given up is given back and experienced in a new way through the transforming power of the indwelling Spirit. Security, pleasure, and power are at the service of love and are integrated into the total Christian personality. The spiritual schizophrenia that has absorbed so much time and drained so much strength ceases. An immense amount of energy is now available for the building of the kingdom. The unremitting peace and joy that flows from union with God and God's world are the triumphant fruits of the Holy Spirit and the goal of the Christian pilgrimage."
""[The] worldview of those who see with the eyes and mind of Christ continues to be a wedding between personal spirituality and liberation theology. With Jesus we long for the unity of the global community, the dawning of the day when the lion will lie down with the lamb, East and West will know each other's language, black and white will really communicate, cities of apathy and despair will experience the sunshine of a better life, and all men and women will rejoice in the Spirit that makes us one. The sense of oneness with the created world and our own freedom in the Spirit and awareness that liberation and liberty are the nucleus of the message of Jesus directs our attention to the emancipation of the world. We cannot claim to have the mind of Christ and remain insensitive to the oppression of our brothers and sisters. We cannot stay oblivious to the world's struggle for redemption, freedom, and peace. We know that the good done to the poor... is done to Jesus himself. We know that we must commit ourselves to concrete action on behalf of liberation. There are things to be done."
"The fire of Pentecostal freedom must be cast upon the darkness of oppressive and dehumanizing structures, institutions, and situations. The saving work of Jesus Christ will remain unfinished until it is kindled... As Christians with the mind of Christ, we must ask of our world, 'Who are the oppressors and who are the oppressed?' The Spirit of God may drive us into the desert to sigh, cry, and pray for freedom for all humanity, into the arena of national or local politics to legislate it, into the marketplace to preserve it, into the bosom of our families to revitalize it, or into the heart of our own moribund churches to recreate it."
"The church as the visible body of the Lord is committed to achieving global freedom, to participate in the construction of a just social order, and to stimulating and radicalizing the dedication of Christians. The holy alliance between contemplation and action can revitalize the church's presence in the world and make its commitment to the Lordship of Jesus deeper and more radical."
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