The power of God's vulnerability
Monday, December 2, 2013
Brother Richard DeMaria
The title of Brene Brown’s book, "The Power of Vulnerability," stopped me in my tracks. Vulnerability is powerful? Upon reflection on my experience, I see that it is. This short article proposes vulnerability as the true power of God.
In his letter to the Colossians, Paul writes:
“He is the image of the invisible God,
The firstborn of all creation.” (Col 1: 15)
We can easily miss how radical is this statement. It is telling us that we can understand the Dynamic Principal of the Universe (which we call “God”) by knowing Jesus. In fact, Christianity says that we can understand God by knowing Jesus crucified. In Jesus’ suffering and death, we see an image of the invisible God. All of Jesus’ life reveals God to us, but his death tells us something essential that we need to accept if we are to know the God of Jesus. God is “meek and humble of heart” and suffers to reach his goals! The dynamic principle of the universe is meekness and humility.
We are told in St. John’s Gospel that God is love. That identification is helpful to us only if we know what love is. Jesus’ life — and especially his death — reveals what is the essential nature of love: the essential nature of love is dying for someone whom you love. It means allowing yourself to be used by the person you love. Just as the sun gives away a part of itself every day, transforming itself into energy that it radiates to the planets, so God sacrifices himself for those He loves continuously.
In the novel, "Sarum," by Edward Rutherford, the king of a tribe decides to worship the sun because it seems to be the most powerful god, able to support his people in battle. I asked myself: what would the king of Sarum think of the self-sacrificing God of Christianity? He would reject the Christian God as weak, unable to accomplish his plans. And most contemporary Christians would also reject this God. Most Christians have not accepted that Jesus — the suffering Jesus on the cross — is the image of God. We have somehow refused to believe that God, like Jesus on the Cross, is not powerful in the traditional sense — able to make whatever he wants happen. We will find a better idea of God’s power if we begin with the idea that God is love and that love relies upon a different kind of power. His method of achieving his goals (power) is vulnerability.
We find that love has its own way of accomplishing its ends. Love doesn’t force or control but gives freedom which empowers the loved one to reach its destiny. By backing down, giving way, not forcing—being vulnerable—the loving person sees, often to his own surprise, that the goal he holds for the loved one is reached. Every time that we enter into a loving relationship with someone —a spouse, a child, a friend—we make ourselves vulnerable to that person. We allow that person to control us, to manipulate us. Our love often requires that we back down, give way. It requires that we allow the other freedom to find for herself the way forward, even if it involves mistakes.
The surprising thing is that the practice of vulnerability “works.” It really is powerful in the sense of being effective. Our personal experience and the history of the universe teach us that in the long run the way of vulnerability eventually succeeds. Although, at first, brute power and force seem the best way to bring about our goals, history teaches us over and over again that they are less effective than love’s method — vulnerability. How this happens is a mystery. Perhaps the mystery of life is that vulnerability is often more effective than force.
Mahatma Gandhi is credited with leading the people of India to free themselves from their colonial masters. He did this by teaching his people to follow the path of non-resistance, which he predicted would be more effective than violence and control. He said that he learned this concept from his reading of Jesus. He also said that, from his experience, Christians did not understand Jesus.
At the end of the novel, "The Sirens of Titan," by Kurt Vonnegut, the protagonist concludes that the only great tragedy in life is not to have been used by someone.
Pope Francis, miraculously given to the Church through the self-sacrificing decision of Benedict XVI, is leading Catholics in this direction. Pope Francis says that for the Christian, poverty is not just a morality or a social problem. Poverty, he says, is for us a theology. This means that poverty tells us about God’s nature. This is how I suggest we interpret Francis’ cryptic statement: God’s nature is the poverty (and surprising power) of vulnerability. God allows things to occur that seem to set his plan back, but by giving freedom and giving way, he will eventually bring his plan for the universe to its Omega point.
The most difficult question for Christianity to answer is: How does an all-powerful God, whom you say loves us, allow these bad things to happen to the world? The answer lies in finding a new meaning of “power” that is consonant with a God who is love. Given this understanding of power (effectiveness) as vulnerability, we can say without hesitation that God is all-powerful and all-loving.
That leaves us with the challenge to learn the ways of Jesus, to allow ourselves to be vulnerable, even to the point of dying, suffering and death, convinced that God’s plan for us will eventually be done.
Comments from readers
As always, your articles are profound and full of thoughts for meditation and further understanding.
In this Advent season, I pray that He continue to bless you and yur ministry.
In His name,
Carlota E. Morales, Ed. D.
Principal
Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic School
This topic is nicely covered in one of the TED talks around the book. "What makes you vulernable makes you beautiful." - Bren� Brown
One of my favorite TED talks is by Bren� Brown on the Power of Vulnerability. The premise is that connection is why we're here, and in order for connection to happen, we have to allow ourselves to be seen.
She encourages us to take off our masks, to have the courage to be imperfect, the strength to love ourselves first, and the guts to let go of who we think we should be to become who we really are.
Inspired by her incredible talk, here are five ways to experience the power of vulnerability so you come alive to your most authentic self:
1. Be real. If you're scared, say you're scared. If you don't know, say you don't know. If you made a mistake, say you made a mistake. If you feel hurt, say you're hurt. If you're in love, say you're in love.
2. Act with no guarantees. Ideas are safe. The idea of true love, the vision of a better world, the image of your perfect lifestyle. We can sit safely in our imaginations all day or we can fully commit to taking action, embracing the notion that we might fail or get hurt.
3. Ask for help. By admitting your weaknesses, you make room for other people's gifts. If you notice yourself trying to do everything yourself, take a step back and evaluate which aspects of the project or situation energize and excite you. Write them down. Then make a list of the areas that exhaust you. Seek help where you're exhausted.
4. Get rejected. No makes room for the right Yes.In what area of your life are you afraid of being rejected? How can you expose yourself to the possibility of being rejected 10 times this week? Through action comes growth.
5. Embrace negative emotions. When we numb sadness and pain, we numb joy and happiness. Feeling the depths of our lows enables us to fully feel the depths of our highs.
It's all connected. To be vulnerable is to be deeply seen. It's to love with your whole heart and to put yourself out there. To feel vulnerable is to be alive—to exist as your most beautiful self.
Keep up the good work in making us THINK!