I participated in the Lenten journey culminating with Palm Sunday, Holy Week, the Triduum and Easter. On Good Friday we reflected on the passion and crucifixion of Christ and how he despised the 4 classical addictions or great temptations – wealth, pleasure, power and honour (cf. Thomas Aguinas and Bishop Barron).
At the root of these classical addictions is fear, particularly fear of death. To counter that fear, people aggrandise the ego decorating it with the approval of others or stuffing it with worldly goods. The crucified Jesus was utterly detached from these including the esteem of others and experienced the limits of dishonour. He loved the Will of His Father which is more powerful than anything the world or the ego of earthly powers can muster.
I recently experienced an election period darker than I’ve ever witnessed in Nigeria. I saw the ego raping an entire country. I saw the ego snatching and holding on to power using killing, maiming, violence, ethnic profiling, vile propaganda and falsehood as tools. I saw the dominion of the ego. It lacked basic positive values and the audacity of truth. I saw its attachment to wealth, power, pleasure and honour covered in a fragile cloak of respectability and desperate hunger for approval. It was and remains dismally repulsive.
May the light of Easter deepen our awareness of the dominion of the ego in our own lives. May we find in the resurrection the power and courage to shatter the ego, see the truth about ourselves, what we do and what we fail to do. May we enthrone the will and love of God.
Have a truly transformational Easter!!
© Dr. Mirian Kene, 2023
MD, @unleashacademyua
Ps. You can follow me on all social media platforms @drmiriankene or visit my coaching website www.unleashacademy.org
Unfortunately, the world is so much in love with ego that they will, preferably, refuse to pinch it at all, much less, to destroy it.
But, whether we accept it or not, the will of the Father must prevail, because it “is more powerful than anything the world or the ego of earthly powers can muster”.
In fact, ultimately, the will of the Father is not just more powerful, but MOST powerful. It is laced with omnipotence and must always prevail.
This is why I see human dereliction, particularly the instance you cited, as conscious and calculated effort of the devil, that eternal enemy of humanity, to debase humanity and annoy God all it can.