Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, September 22, 2009

You can be great only if it is your destiny.

Destiny has a lot to do with it, but so do you.
You have to persevere, you have to insist.

- Andrea Bocelli, singer, born on this date, 1958

Bocelli definitely has a charisma. I have a delightful friend who bought a little flat in Lucca. She and friends chased Bocelli around Italy for months, entranced with his voice and personality – and of course, his concerts were in glorious Italian settings! It charms me. What a delightful way of enjoying Life!

I have thought about “destiny”. The popular notion of it is that something else is directing it. I reject this notion completely – especially if it is thought that “God” directs it in disregard of human freedom. Such a “God” is only a tyrant. No such “God” exists except in the mind of tyrants.

“Destiny” is the choice of every human being. I do believe that there is a Common Destiny. To put it in a Christian context, we are all “destined” to become the God we Imagine and embrace: unconditionally loving, compassionate, gentle, kind, non-coercive yet speaking the truth in love, non-possessive, liberating, able to understand that self-love is synonymous with self-giving for others. Nothing satisfies our longing for Self than pouring our love out for others. We each have a Destiny – and it is solely in our own hands. As Bocelli says, “You have to persevere, you have to insist”. It is in this perseverance and insistence that our uniqueness shines.

The only Destiny you confront is to be your true Self. If you fail, no one else is to blame.

Greatness as a person is a Mystery. It is illuminated by Jesus, who said to His disciples, “Anyone who wants to be great must be the least of all and the servant of all”. You have to have chosen the path of servanthood. No one can force it on you. You have to have chosen it yourself.

It IS our destiny to be great. Think what the World would be like if we all understood the true path to greatness and lived our days passionately living its character!

We do know it – many of us. What we need is each other to “bear each others burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ”.

Together, we can change the World.

Brian+