Growth

39. Personal growth

As we continue to grow into truly mature and spiritually rich people, we shall be of greater worth to our community of brothers. We attain a joint responsibility; where desired, we offer our honest opinion; we are ready to listen to others and to accept help from others; we can appreciate others in their being different; we are able to give away ourselves to others and nevertheless remain ourselves.

Reflection:

The maturing of our vocation as brothers also implies our growth in wisdom. We can learn from Confucius who taught that there are three methods by which we can learn wisdom: through thought, through imitation, through experience:

Thought, Confucius implied, gives foundation to action. Unless I have thought through the values to be gained in any situation, I choose blindly. The one who is enlightened chooses consciously for altruism over profit, for depth of soul over the hoarding of material things, for emptiness rather than an accumulation of superficial distractions that can only separate us from ourselves.

Imitation, Confucius reminds us, reveals what we see is good. The brothers after whom we shape our own lives, the people who are our heroes, provide the clue to our own value system.

Experience, Confucius teaches, guides us through life from its basic stages and provides the final test of enlightenment. Who we are on the other side of pain and loss is who we are at our best.

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