STANDING ON THE FEET

 A MAN MUST STAND ON HIS FEET

MAY RECOLLECTION

DON. JOSEPH B. NYAMUNGA, SSA

AIM OF EDUCATION

- Helps us to achieve manhood- not nature… By nature we can all call ourselves men…not age as distinct from women, but to achieve self –integration. 

- Harmonious ordering of elements of human makeup

- Keep a perfect balance between the elements of human makeup.

FEW MEN ARE WORTH THE NAME

- Some fail because they are not encouraged

- Others fail because they have not worked at it

- Others fail because of the complex of influences

Such personal inadequacies, corrupting example of others, environmental circumstances.

INTEGRATED MAN

Is one who has brought the spiritual, the emotional and the physical into harmony <Hierarchy>

LIVE STANDING ON YOUR HEAD

Physical upper hand takes shape, it should not be a  blunt emotional-stifle spirituality that is built upon the irresistible urge to eat, drink, so as  to gratify desire-inertia, refusal to get up or do anything when up. A sober mind and well baked.

SOME BARELY CRAWL

Emotion has upper hand which often leads to affection that builds up into passion and this can make one lose one’s head into thinking that truth depends on feelings but to know that everything depends on attitude, e.g. teacher may give up when not appreciated and one may pray when only in form.

STAND ON YOUR FEET

The spiritual holds the veins, complete freedom not contempt of the above elements, but the Spirit is masts plus the Lord. We need God’s help. To transform our inner life is an open soul to God and leads to a strong will in full cooperation to what does God want in me as an individual in search for integral unity.

MAN HAS TWO DIMENSIONS

To be a man one must be on his own feet, he must achieve and work towards self-integration, bringing his make up into balance. The spirit must rule both emotions and the body to create that harmoniousness..

MAN MUST FUNCTION IN TWO DIMENSIONS

Isn’t enough to achieve self-integration, the man on his feet must face reality. Man has two dimensions in facing reality and who really deserves the name “man”.

a) Man’s vertical dimension: is his relationship to God. No man can say indeed I need no one outside myself. We must be open doors of our personality and giving freely to serve without reservation. God was not content with just creating us, he wished to become one with us in our lives. We have to allow him to transform our very lives where we can say with St. Paul:

 “It is not I who live but Christ who lives in me…” This is the first dimension of man what we call the vertical one, i.e. man’s relationship with God. 

 To be worth of the name man one must function within this dimension. But a well-balanced man, the man on his feet ought to face reality that has to build up into another dimension.

b) The horizontal one; His relationship to his fellow men. He must open his heart to them all. As Shakespeare says “Life is a stage and we are all players” For any play to be successful all players must have a feel for it, must cooperate.  Man is a family of actors and no matter where and when he lives he must be one with all men in their problems and concerns, their hopes and aspirations. We are not thrown together as potatoes in the sack. 

We are persons and we must communicate, we are related, we have to contribute to the wellness of those around us. We can’t mature if we do not communicate with fellow men-just like a limb separated from other parts of the body can’t develop. Our development as men have aspects:

i) Self-consciousness: by doing this and that the child develops into an adolescent with the <reward> as a gift and <Shame> as a penalty.

ii) Other consciousness in knowing that I am not alone- my life is not fully human if other people have no place in it.

iii) Egoism- egoism is the opposite of love. A man who retreats into himself and tries to convince himself that he can go it alone, is an egoist. However talented he may be, he will never attain full maturity. Such a man thinks only of his interests, his studies, family, future, his wellbeing- he has no time for anyone else. 

He has nothing to do with them- Such man will never grow up, he will be a spiritual dwarf.

iv) Self-forgetfulness and generosity- Each of us has to be a link in a chain of relationship. Link yourself with those around you. If you fail here, any other link is likely to lack a genuineness, sincerity, but be formed in the spirit of community (seminary family).

 Contribute to its life if there is no room first. How can you welcome others in your life but to do this you must create room. If you are full of yourself and your interests how can how can other men and their interests find room in you? 

It is possible not to know their names, where they come from- or never said a word to them. To out of your way to do well, sometimes at a cost of sacrifice, helping them out.

v) The two dimensions are inseparable- they are complementary- you can’t be sons of the Father if you do not love the brother- you can’t be brothers if you don’t have a common Father. Sacrifice will be called for, self-love has to be nurtured, is this not the greatest commandment.

MAN MUST MAKE CONTACT WITH OTHERS

In order to live our horizontal dimension we must make contact with others. This is our duty because no man is an island to himself. Psychologists speak of “a lonely crowd” how a crowd of so –called one can be quite alone in the midst of a crowd of so-called friends. In the crowd of 150 students it’s possible to be lonely. 

For how can be lonely if he can’t make contacts with others, and unless he is willing to see others as they are and welcome them into his life. There is a common doubt that will always pop up in the life of formation stages. “We do not understand him”. If the formators can’t understand you, do you think the bishop will?

b) To see a person, means to be genuinely getting interested in that person, in his work. Expressions such as “mind your own business or don’t poke your nose into…” are all rights in their circumstances. But if we are people living in a community we should not be so indifferent about the affairs of others.

ii) In your recreation think about a case of a game where a player is needed, are you prepared to sacrifice your own interest and get involved and respond to the need at hand?

iii) In our likes and dislikes- if we want to be sociable and serviceable, we must learn to anticipate to the wishes of others. We must learn to read the likes and dislikes of others and interpret them as they are.

iv)  If we decide to live together there will certainly be difficulties. This will have to build in us a generous and self-forgetting person who studies the difficulties of others, in as much as there lies in power of helping out.

MAKE ROOM FOR OTHERS IN YOUR LIFE

In Europe people who don’t like others to come to their homes put a sign “Beware of the Dogs” in many of them they are no dogs but themselves. These are people whose temperament is so repulsive that no one dares approach them and they don’t like to be bothered. 

Like a student who asked “do you think you will understand me? He was always silent in class, silent at meals, silent and alone in recreation. 

He was an island to and in himself. Sometimes we like  impose our ideas on others, often they are rejected hence we sulk like a praying mantis, If you are always talking to yourself…learn  openness, sincere welcome where people would find warmth, simplicity and affability.

FREEDOM, ITS NATURE AND USE

(Cf. Gal 5:13-16)

The last sentence is back to where we started namely: In order to be men we must stand on our feet. The spirit must control and guide the emotions and the body. 

The middle passage takes us back to the second consideration, namely man’s two dimensions. It stresses the second dimension which is our relationship with our neighbor. You must reject all attitudes of antagonism and opposition to your neighbor. St. Paul speaks in the practical way. 

If you are backbiting and worrying each other then don’t call yourselves Christian, if you go opposing each other and tearing each other into pieces, you had better watchout or you destroy the whole community.

Vivisection is about tearing a person to pieces. There are students who develop habits of grumbling, complaining against fellow students, against that member of the staff and against the whole staff. 

What is interesting about such people is how easily they persuade themselves to believe that they are always right. Of course their listeners will not dare to show them they are wrong, for fear, they may fall victims of their sharp tongue. (Cf. James 3). 

In all our conduct with all people, brotherly love must be the guide. To stand on your feet means a man whose spirit controls his emotions and his body and must be a man who knows what freedom is and who knows how to use it.

II) They are many who think freedom is the ability to do what one wants. You can imagine the situation in which would result in any community. If freedom meant that, this may be freedom wild animals enjoy, but its certainty is not the freedom of man, let alone of a son of God.  

We can describe freedom as: The ability of always choosing the good and of resolutely keeping to your choices. The question here could be what is “good”. The answer is short and simple. God’s will. Quoist sums up this by saying 

“If you follow your instincts exclusively, you know only an animal freedom. If you give into imagination to emotion, to your own will, to pride, to egoism, you will know the freedom of the sinner. 

If you however do the will of God, the freedom of the son of God…your ability to do the will of the Father is the measure of your level of freedom”. 

Real freedom comes to fulfilment in obedience to God whose will is mediated to us through the Church, our legitimate superiors, our daily obligations and the ordinary circumstances of our lives. 

The agent par excellence of this formation is the Holy Spirit who by the gift of new heart configures and conforms us to Jesus Christ, the Good shepherd. 

It’s therefore right that we invoke the Holy Spirit as well as we prepare to get back to the seminary family. That we may be made docile to his inspirations, which He makes us docile to. In mediating human forces which he employs, in molding us. Do not close your hearts to Him but be open for transformation and conversion.