realizing your life is not about you I love that little phrase I got it from Richard Roar originally but I think you see it in all the great spiritual teachers realize your life is not about you it's your life it's just not about you it's about something that stretches infinitely Beyond you you know in the um initiation rituals of Primal peoples we find this commonality in almost any culture I'll talk about the the rituals around young men because it's clearer there the young man is ripped out of his uh his domestic life he's the men
of the village will take him away from the comfort of his home think of a a baby or a child I mean appropriately their life is about them we have to protect them and sustain them so there's a lot of self focus but it adolescence that boy is ripped out of that comfortable space he's then usually marked or scarified in some way like a tooth is not out or he's cut on the cheek or he's circumcised or something that they mark on his body the difficulty and pain of life and then he's initiated into the
stories and rituals and traditions of his people and then he sent depending on the culture to the edge of the tundra or the jungle or or the forest given a few provisions and then told to make his way and to return only when when he has some communication with the higher spiritual power and again we can find this in in in the cultures around the world what I'm finding so fascinating there is the young man is being told now in a in a ton of different ways your life is not about you your life is
situated in the context of your family of your tribe of the history of your people of a nature that surrounds you and finally of a spiritual order that is meant to command you and see only when you get that in your bones are you capable really of returning usefully to the community it's an adventure of true self-discovery not this egotistic thing we're hung up with today of I invent my own life I mean that's the opposite momentum you see what I mean that's the opposite of the direction we should be going your life isn't about
you and your little plans it's about finally God's plans for you I love something in the uh in the western tradition the distinction between I'll put it in Latin it sounds cooler the Pila anima and the Magna anima um you know our our word it's it's a weird English word but pusillanimous that person's pusillanimous it means literally small sold small soul Magna anima someone that's magnanimous right is someone who's great sold to me that's a very um um helpful illustration the small Soul St Augustin said sin is to be incurvatus in to be caved in
around oneself is that good that's the small soul my little plans my little preoccupations my little fears the Magna anima is the anima the soul connected to truth and to beauty and to goodness and finally to God the Great Soul you know what's interesting both them um Latin has a Sanskrit root doesn't it so it's it's no accident that Magna anima sounds like Mahatma you know so we mandas Gandhi was called Mahatma Gandhi the Great Soul Gandhi meant the same thing the third path is moving out of the little musty stuffy confines of the Pila
anima and discovering the Great Space of the Magna anima you know I think I in my talk this morning I quoted that line from Ephesians there's a power already at work in you that can do infinitely more than you can ask or imagine see that's what I'm talking about what I can ask or imagine I mean how bore me to death with what I can ask and imagine right there's a power though thank God already at work in me that's the holy spirit that can do infinitely more than I can ask or imagine surrender to
that power and you'll realize your life is not about you I think when I was um about 15 or 16 I saw a man for all seasons for the first time I saw the movie before I read the play uh the great Paul scoffield right who died not too many years ago uh the great Shakespearean actor playing Thomas Moore and so many scenes you know beguile me but one that's that's a little quieter but has really stayed my heart remember um the man that eventually does more in is called Richard Rich who was a real
historical figure but what a name you know if you're reflecting on a spiritual theme Richard Rich and that's what Richard Rich wanted was to be rich and to be famous he's a a recent graduate and he's hanging around Thomas Moore because he wants to be among the glitterati of the court of Henry VII and he's after more to give him a big job right rich or Rich he wants to fill up his ego with all the wealth pleasure power and honor he can so he pesters more pesters more and finally one day Thomas moris says
Richard I have a job for you you do Mor says yes there's an opening in the local school and Richard Richie just tell I here's Big dreamer you know talking about the Wheel of Fortune and uh he's his face just fell I mean a teacher in a local school are you kidding and Moore says you'd be a good teacher maybe even a great one and Richard Rich says and if I were Who would know it there's the voice of the of the frightened puula anima right and Mo's great answer in man for all seasons is
yourself your friends your pupils God not a bad public that see but that's the whole and see in many ways I think the play turns on that little scene because see Thomas Moore did have wealth pleasure power and honor as the movie opens he's great Manor House in Chelsea he's the he becomes Lord Chancellor of England he's he's wealthy he's famous well-known writer Etc he got it all by the end of the movie that's all Stripped Away every bit of it but what he's doing is playing for the one public that matters he's playing for
God right that's the role he's playing I die the king's good servant but God's first and see Richard Rich goes just the opposite way he's got nothing in the beginning by the end of the story remember it says and he became Lord Chancellor of England he had all that stuff but by God he played for the wrong audience if profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world but for whales remember the famous line in that so no offense to Welsh up there um but that's the point that's the point that the
Lord himself is making you know I mean we spent our whole life running after wealth pleasure honor and power it's a waste of time you know the line from Joseph Campbell the comparative uh a mythologist he said here's the tragedy most people find they've climbed the ladder of success only to discover it's up against the wrong wall but is that true I mean you reach a certain age and I spent my whole life climbing up that stupid ladder and it's I was meant to climb that ladder you know that's why in Jesus great Parables you
know the pearl of great price and the treasure buried in the field sell everything you've got and buy that when you find it when you find what God wants when you find that your life's not about you then then surrender all the preoccupations you had who needs them in image I love from Hans URS V balazar the great 20th century Catholic Theologian much loved by John Paul 2 and Pope Ben he distinguished between the ego drama and the Theo drama right what's the ego drama well that's the drama that I'm writing producing Direct directing and
above all starring in it's the Robert Baron show on the road in Liverpool here's my U Supporting Cast around me see but most of us sinners live our lives that way it's the ego drama how I how my ego doing how's my ego being projected how's my ego being protected how's my ego being praised but balar says forget the ego drama bore again bore me to death with the ego drama what matters is the the Theo drama that's the drama that God is writing God is producing God is directing and yeah you've got a roll
in it you sure do and finding it is everything but it might not be anywhere in the ballpark of what you think your role is in the ego drama who cares who cares find what God wants you to do and then do that with all your heart and trust me you'll find much deeper joy in that move just one last observation then I'll stop um there there's a spiritual writer named Jean pier thead and Jean Pier de kosad is not one of the kind of great figures like John of the Cross or you know meister
eard and but he's a guy who had one really good idea and he said it over and over and over again he's one of those people but but it's a really good idea and here's it here it is he said everything that happens to you is in some sense the will of God and what he meant was it's right out of Thomas aquinus what he meant was either directly or indirectly either God is directly Desiring it for you or God is at least permitting it right everything happens is either directly or indirectly the will of
God our being here right now the will of God yeah you bet aquinus says God's Providence extends to particulars his typically lonic way of saying God's involved in everything some in this room I can't see you but are old enough uh to remember the old Baltimore cat oh no that's I'm telling my American audience you would know the Baltimore catechism but uh if there are some Americans here there was a question in the old catechism it was a Q&A format right and the question was where is God and the answer was everywhere now can I
suggest in light of je P kosad your whole life will change if you come to accept that where is God everywhere everywhere here yes has God brought us together yeah whatever happens to you is in some sense either directly or permissively the will of God I would suggest everybody your whole life will change if you begin to move into that space stop directing your life ego dramatically and start thinking about it theod dramatically my life is not about me it's about cooperating with what God has placed in front of me what God's purpose is for
me so you find the center get your life gathered around Christ know you're a sinner name your attachments name those false forms of worship and then realize your life is not about you it's about your participation in this Great Divine Adventure walking those three paths means you become a saint which is the whole purpose of the church listen God bless everybody thanks again for having me
