What do we mean by "Sacrifice"? (Sunday Forum)

by PeterR , Tuesday, May 26, 2009, 15:07 (1455 days ago) @ CathyT

Cathy,

I don't know that I can add more than that I agree with you as to the tension between personal development and loving service of the other; not that they are mutually exclusive for it is in loving others that we grow to be fully human. However, there is a need for balance. It is something like the tension in many work situations between getting one's job done and attending to the people one is employed to serve.

St Irenaeus is often quoted: "The glory of God is man fully alive." We are called upon to develop all of our God-given talents, not to allow them to atrophy from non-use.

It seems to me that life's big decisions are occasions when people would tend to reflect before deciding. In doing so they are more likely to bring values into their considerations.

Most of our days, though, are quite routine. I recall a group being asked: "What is life?" One quick response was: "Life is one bloody thing after another." On one occasion a school staff asked me to help them to formulate their school policy. The approach I took was to begin by asking them to describe the typical school day, moment by moment, but they weren't allowed to say "should". They found it impossible to keep that one rule. As each activity was being discussed briefly, one member of staff would be sure to say: "We should do ...," which was an expression of an obvious aspect of loving the children to which they had not adverted. Subsequently, over many weeks, they worked through the school day activities and challenged their operational values.

No doubt it is good for us to do reviews of our routine lives from time to time to assess our every day values. That helps to make our lives "sacrum facere", made holy.

I enjoy the way you have supplementary questions to push others to think a bit more.

Peter