Social commentator...
Illustration
Object:
Social commentator Alain de Botton has noted that our anxiety about status is a function of not finding fulfillment in two quests -- the quest for sex and the quest for status. When we experience attention in these realms, we flourish (Status Anxiety, pp. 5-7). In the lesson, Jesus affirms the worth of his followers, claiming that whoever welcomes them welcomes him. John Calvin nicely makes this point. Jesus' commissioning of the disciples, he says, "shows how dearly he loves them, when he places to his own account the kind offices which they have received" (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVI/1, pp. 475-476). This is certainly a clear affirmation of our high status. Martin Luther once claimed that God makes Christians lords who are subject to no one (Luther's Works, Vol. 31, p. 344). With this kind of status, most anxieties we have are likely to vanish, we can flourish.
Augustine was reflecting on how much God values us and then prayed that he would inflame us and excite us, so that we would come to delight in praising God (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 1, pp. 119-120, 145). And then with that flame in our hearts we will want to do what Saint Ignatius the founder of the Jesuits called his followers to do, to "Go and set the world on fire!"
Augustine was reflecting on how much God values us and then prayed that he would inflame us and excite us, so that we would come to delight in praising God (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 1, pp. 119-120, 145). And then with that flame in our hearts we will want to do what Saint Ignatius the founder of the Jesuits called his followers to do, to "Go and set the world on fire!"
