Enlivening Humanity

Morning devotions on Deutschlandfunk radio on February 4

We want big things, encounter small things, and make ourselves small.

We encounter the big, make it small to appear big.

I was very pleased with the very positive response to Monday's mailing about my three-part article "What a Theater" (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3): Challenging times require us to get to the heart of the problems in order to hope to overcome them in the long term. Especially with the Bundestag elections in mind, it is important for voters to understand how peace, the migration debate, and their own well-being are interrelated, and that it is not enough to cast their vote on February 23 in the hope that someone else will arrange things in a way that benefits them as much as possible.

However, since Wednesday, a second paragraph must be added to the first, because the article takes on outstanding significance in connection with Donald Trump's phone call with Vladimir Putin and the intentions expressed to ignore Europe in the negotiations, but to hold it responsible for reconstruction and peacekeeping forces in Ukraine. And there is a second article that I would like to bring to your attention again: my analysis of the nature of American politics, The Other Side of the Coin.

Those who read my work know that analyzing the social constitution and striving to develop ideas, concepts, and products for a prosperous and sustainable future for our country and its people, while strengthening the individual in particular — leading them from being a cared-for object to an individually acting, community-oriented, creative subject (1, 2, 3, 4) — essentially determine my engagement with the times. In doing so, I often find that I put thoughts into words that I later realize I cannot improve upon for a long time. Examples of this are my aphorisms and various images, but also my idea of what it means to be human. My New Year's wishes in the archive of my homepage also bear witness to this: for a number of years, they ended with the formula:

I conclude with the now customary formula of my wishes for you and the new year. Let us work together to engage more with ourselves and our weaknesses. For our own sake.

How can we do this? Not by tormenting ourselves and blaming ourselves or others. No. But by moving a little to the left and right of the path we have taken and taking one or two detours. Not in relation to things that come easily to us. On the contrary, we must deal with what is difficult for us, what is new to us, where our demons lurk, and what we have rejected until now. I can assure you from my own long experience that this can be fulfilling, fun, bring relief, and take the pressure off.

Where these sources of new experiences and abilities lie can be very different for each of us: perhaps making problems transparent, searching for solutions together, focusing on the benefits of others, approaching supposed opponents with an open mind. Every day, we encounter situations in which we can practice this. It is perfectly normal if it is difficult at first. But this is the only way.

On February 4, I heard Pastor Detlef Ziegler from the Diocese of Münster give the morning prayer on Deutschlandfunk radio. "Yes," I thought to myself. Pastor Ziegler found very powerful words to describe the state of our society, and I don't want to keep them from my readers. A very welcome side effect is the fact that he recalls the 300th birthday of Immanuel Kant.

Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's understanding without the guidance of another. This immaturity is self-imposed when its cause lies not in a lack of understanding, but in a lack of resolve and courage to use it without the guidance of another.

Especially in view of the federal elections on February 23 and what I have been trying to express in my texts over the past few weeks – but also on X, where there is a lot about "respect" for everyone and everything – I see the special significance of this text. Pastor Ziegler was kind enough to allow me to publish it. You can also listen to his contribution here. There you will also find a short biography of him.

Now then, here is Pastor Detlef Ziegler's morning prayer

Immanuel Kant, born a good 300 years ago, is considered rather dry and difficult to understand. This makes what I read in his Metaphysics of Morals all the more astonishing. There, he passionately asserts that humans have a widespread tendency to "grovel." And he urges us: "Do not become slaves to other people. Do not let your rights be trampled on by others with impunity. Bowing and scraping before another human being seems in any case to be unworthy of a human being. But those who make themselves worms cannot complain afterwards that they are being trampled on."

Immanuel Kant struggles to find a philosophical justification for human dignity. A human being must never be degraded to a mere means to a higher end. Their dignity is inviolable. In this sense, Kant's concern is also firmly anchored in the first sentence of our country's constitution.

But Kant is not only concerned with the dignity of others. He is also concerned with the dignity within ourselves, which is threatened by our own self-abasement and servility. If I make myself small and insignificant, I should not be surprised if others also think of me as small and insignificant. The self-abasement of human beings undermines their own dignity.

Incidentally, I find in this a genuine concern of Jesus. There is no question that there are words of Jesus that can be misinterpreted as self-abasement and have been used to keep people small: "Whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Or: Whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of all." But these words of Jesus are not about turning people into little worms; they are about bringing those who follow Jesus down from their pedestal of self-aggrandizement and enabling them to serve others.

For service to others requires equality, not condescension from above. But I can only respect and love others if I have a healthy degree of self-respect and self-love. And this is exactly how Jesus summed it up in the double commandment of love: "You shall love the Lord your God. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself." Precisely: as yourself! Self-love and self-respect are not opposites, but are mutually dependent. To put it less elegantly: if you can't stand yourself, you stink to others too.

When I look at some of Jesus' encounters with people marked by life and fate, that's exactly what strikes me: He seeks out these people in their buried dignity, which has been denigrated by others, but also lost through their own self-abasement. He doesn't ask, "What can I do for you?" but rather, "What do you want me to do for you?" Those who are asked about their own desires in this way are given the chance to rediscover their own dignity. Or as Kant says: "We have a duty ly to respect ourselves." And when Jesus says to a healed man who has been raised up, "Your faith has saved you!", then it is probably this faith in himself and faith in God, who means well with me, with all of us. We are worthy of him and of each other. That can make me strong. And I need that strength to stand up for the dignity of all. Because it is threatened again, as it always has been.

Conclusion

I would like to conclude this article with a quote from Pope Francis that complements what has been discussed so far. On X, it belongs alongside one from Albert Schweitzer

I am life that wants to live, in the midst of life that wants to live.

It comes from a highly acclaimed interview with Antonio Spadaro on September 21, 2013. When the Pope humbly reflects on his own fallibility and shows the way out of it, this can certainly be applied to our existence as a whole: to all social structures, political parties, individual social, professional, and private relationships, and, last but not least, to ourselves.

I see very clearly that what the Church needs today is the ability to heal wounds and warm people's hearts—closeness and connection. I see the Church as a field hospital after a battle. You don't ask a seriously wounded person about their cholesterol or high blood sugar. You have to heal the wounds. Then we can talk about everything else. Heal the wounds, heal the wounds... You have to start at the very bottom.

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