“To whom much has been given, much will be required.” Spiritual leadership begins beneath the weight of those words. To be entrusted with souls is no privilege of rank. It is a demanding vocation: to guide different temperaments, to coax one, reprove another, encourage another, and somehow remain faithful while carrying one’s own unfinished humanity.
Benedict never imagines a leader who has ceased to struggle. The leader remains among the struggling—still learning, still failing, still being converted. Perhaps this is why weakness, once admitted, can become a gift. What we conceal becomes pride; what we surrender can become humility. Our wounds teach tenderness. Our failures teach patience. Our need for mercy teaches us how to extend mercy.
How, then, do we grow beyond ourselves?
We do not.
God grows us beyond ourselves.
“Surrender now.” Give God the willful spirit that insists upon managing everything alone. Faith is not confidence that we are strong enough; it is confidence that God remains faithful when our strength has disappeared. As Paul discovered, divine power is made perfect precisely where human strength reaches its limit.
The spiritual leader therefore lives continually at the threshold of conversion, believing that tomorrow need not be imprisoned by today. To lead is to believe that transformation is possible—in oneself and in another.
And what an extraordinary calling this becomes: to midwife the spiritual life of this generation and the next. We cannot create that life. We cannot command its birth. We can only watch, encourage, challenge, protect, pray—and trust God with what lies beyond our power.
We strive for holiness not because we are without weakness, but because we know our weakness. And knowing it, we can say with confidence to those entrusted to us:
Come. Let us surrender together.
The God who is changing me can change you too.
No comments:
Post a Comment