Honoring our self to honor God

”If you can’t honor the Divine Indwelling—the presence of the Holy Spirit—within yourself, how could you see it in anybody else? All awareness, enlightenment, aliveness, and transformation begins with recognizing that your own eternal DNA is divine and unearned; only then are you ready to see it everywhere else too.”

The Spirit of God is clearly democratic, unmerited, and inclusive. It is the “foundation for human dignity and flourishing that is inherent, universal, and indestructible by any evaluation of race, religion, gender, sexuality, nationality, class, education, physical ability, or IQ.”

Luke’s story of Pentecost emphasizes that people from all over the world heard the preaching in their own languages (Acts 2). And Paul proclaims, “One and the same Spirit was given to us all to drink!” (1 Corinthians 12:13). “You, all of you, are sons and daughters of God, now clothed in Christ, where there is no distinction between male or female, Greek or Jew, slave or free, but all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26-28).

Paul makes bold declarations that ought to speak to the divisiveness within our country, communities, and our own hearts. Our want and desire to be better isn’t a bad thing when it is line with God’s will. But when it is separated from God, our desire and our will shall only keep the other in our crosshairs. We must always strive to see The Divine in every body so that we can better see the Indwelling beauty that God placed in us. Rohr writes, “No longer was the human body a cheap thing, degraded by slavery and abuse. He called men to care for their bodies. And helped women understand that the human body has dignity, so you have a right to demand and give respect to it. Because of this understanding, a woman could claim her own dignity and refuse to give her body away to every man who wanted it.”

What was true then is still true today.

“The old world is forever gone and a new world of universal human dignity is grounded in our objective and universal Christ identity.” Perhaps this is why the Gospel message and Christianity spread so quickly. Could the present #MeToo movement be awakening a similar revolution?

Jesus (and today’s revolts against an antiquated and divisive power structure) had the power turned the world upside down. He did so by first looking from the inside out. And loving what he saw. When we can see and love and accept what God sees, loves and accepts in our self then #WeToo ought to see through God’s eyes; loving and accepting one another.

What was true then is still true today.


Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Art of Letting Go: Living the Wisdom of St. Francis,