Page 179 - Built For God Handbook (Annotated and Explained Edition) - The Christian Edition of the Tao Te Ching - The New Evangelization - Pope John Paul II
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The opening lines of this chapter bring to mind the saying that still waters
run deep. The text goes on to espouse the virtues of simplicity, humility,
vulnerability, and selflessness, just the opposite of what seems most
attractive to our wounded world – possessions, prestige, power, and
pleasure.
Those who intentionally practice detachment from all these secondary and
temporary goods and attach themselves in faith to doing the will of the
Father, first and foremost, as did Jesus, the Son of God, will attain and
experience a high degree of serenity and resilience, able to withstand the
buffeting of the events of daily life.
They enter into the realm of a higher plane of existence, a world of believers
whose hearts are not restless because they are at one with their Maker,
Keeper, and Lover, as the mystics put it.
b
a 1 Samuel 2:3; James 1:26; Proverbs 10:19; Psalm 7:12-16;
c
Matthew 23:1-12; Romans 12:2; Philippians 4:8-9; 1 Peter 5:7;
d
Psalm 55:22; Romans 3:22-24; John 8:54; 1 Corinthians 1:27;
e John 17:20-24; Psalm 103:13-18; 1 Corinthians 12:12-14;
f 2 Corinthians 6:3-13; Ephesians 3:1-6.
g