It is no surprise that historic male initiation rites forced the young man to face both God and death head-on – ahead of time – so he could know for himself that it could do his True Self no harm – but in fact would reveal it.*
(Richard Rohr)

Richard Rohr revisits the fifth elemental truth that he first wrote about in Adam’s Return, rites of passage that work for all of us as we seek to bring our gift and make our contribution:

Life is hard
You are not as special as you think
Your life is not about you
You are not in control
You are going to die.

The idea being that we face these truths sooner rather than later that our False Self dies and our True Self is freed to live.

It means that the richest and most meaningful thing we want to do with our lives will cost us everything, but, as mythologist Joseph Campbell counsels, we must follow our bliss. There’s no other way to live; the last thing we want to do is reach the end of our lives knowing that we never pursued our deepest joy.

(From Richard Rohr’s Immortal Diamond.)