“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.”
A
Journey to Self Fulfillment.
What comes to mind when we think about, talk about, or
experience God? Does it really matter what
comes to mind -
does it matter in our mundane daily life - or does it matter only when
we are in a religious setting, in church or on a spiritual retreat? I submit that not only does it matter in all
aspects of our lives; it is basic to our vision of who we are, to our
consciousness of our place in the universe, and to what is our final
destiny. Our understanding of God as the
Holy Trinity is the foundation of our religion as Christians but it
also is the basis of how we are called to live out our lives.
Let us first assume that God exists and let us briefly
explore with the philosophers ( viz. St. Thomas Aquinas via W. N.
Clarke, S.J. in “Person and Being”) what it means for anything to exist
as we think about God. That is, we say
that God is but what does it mean “to be”? The first thought we may
have is that to be is to be present - it is about a something, a
substance, that is just there. If that
were all there was to being, then it wouldn’t matter if it is there or
not because such a being would not be able to be detected. Rather “to
be” is an action - the full meaning of “to be” is not just to be
present, but “to be actively present”. Now,
the fundamental action of being is self- manifestation or
self-communication. So “to be” is tied to showing what you are in
yourself. In other words, existence means
making your presence known. This being so,
then there follows that existence has another dimension - that of
relationality. We have that being includes
self-communication yet communication means that there is a receiver -
another presence that receives the communication. “To
be” fully means then that it is not possible to be alone. Putting it
another way, “to be” fully is “to be substance in relation”. Thus, being has two dimensions - the in-itself
dimension of being as substance and the towards others aspect of being
as related to action. As we think about this further and accept that
self-communication is a fundamental aspect of real being, so too must
be receptivity. “To be” means also to be
disposed, to receive what is communicated. This give-receive dyad is
always a dimension of being and is manifested as love. Indeed
this dimension is present in God in a perfect way and is imitated in
all other beings. “Thus, the doctrine of the Trinity means that the
very inner nature of the Supreme Being itself is a process beyond time
and change of self communicating love; the Father, un-originated
possessor of the infinite fullness of divine nature, communicates his
entire divine nature to the Second Person, the Son or Word in an act of
loving self knowledge, with the only distinction between the two as
Giver and Receiver. Both together, in a single act of mutual love, pour
forth the same divine essence to their love image, the Holy Spirit, the
Third Person. Thus the very life of God, the supreme fullness of what
it means to be, is by its very nature self-communicative love which
flows over freely in the finite self-communication that is the universe.
This
overflowing of the inner life of God is present in all of creation,
most especially in we human beings who participate, with the angels,
most perfectly in the divine being; we are in the image and likeness of
God. God’s self communication to us as
receivers is very evident in the Scripture readings for today where the
Lord stands with Moses and reveals himself as
merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and
fidelity. Or where John proclaims that “God so
loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who
believes in him might not perish but have eternal life.”
It is clear then that who God is matters to us in the
most profound way - in our ultimate destiny. Now our own act of being
includes our receptivity to God’s self giving - we are real only in as
much as we are open to receive God’s grace. Because
of our free will, though, we need to cultivate our receptivity to God’s
self giving, the giving of his Son. How do
we do that? First of all, we need to
remember that as part of creation, we are not God. Rather we are
homo-viator - human beings on a journey toward self realization. Our destiny is to journey through matter, toward
a fulfillment beyond matter - what is called eternal life. To this end,
we can imagine ourselves to be like the first settlers of the Hawaiian
Islands. It is thought that these
first settlers came from Polynesia some 2000 ocean miles away.
Have you ever noticed how isolated Hawaii is? Just
how did they manage to get there over that vast expanse of water? First of all, someone had to have found the Islands first and then returned to
tell the others that the Islands existed and where they
were. These others had to believe him and his directions in order for
themselves to find their way there. The
two ingredients that enabled them to pursue their destiny is their sea
voyaging skills, reading the winds and the currents, and their
knowledge of the heavens.
Apply this to our own journey. The vast ocean represents
our free will. We are free to live our lives anyway we want. But if we truly want to fulfill our destiny we
will have to discipline our will to follow the way God wants us to. Wouldn’t it be foolish to rely only on our own
skills without reference to the heavens, to God? We
have as much chance of reaching our destiny then as those Hawaii seekers if they had ignored
the heavens. Wouldn’t it be better to put ourselves in harmony with the
self-giving God and imitate the Son’s receptivity?
As an illustration of a journey well made, we recall the
story of on old man dying of cancer.
The man’s daughter had asked the
local priest to come and pray with her father. When
the priest arrived, he found the man lying in bed with his head propped
up on two pillows and an empty chair beside his bed. The priest assumed
that the man had been informed of his visit. “I
guess you were expecting me,” he said.
“No, who are you?”
“I’m the new
associate at your parish. When I saw the
empty chair, I figured you knew I was going to be here.”
“Oh yeah, the chair”, said the bedridden man. “Would
you mind closing the door?”
Puzzled, the priest shut the door.
“I’ ve never
told anyone, not even my daughter,” said the man. “But all my life I
have never known how to pray. At Mass, I
used to hear the pastor talk about prayer, but it always went over my
head...I abandoned any attempt at prayer until one day about four years
ago my best friend said to me, ‘Joe, prayer is just a simple matter of
having a conversation with Jesus. Here’s
what I suggest. Sit down on a chair, place an empty chair in front of
you, and in faith see Jesus on the
chair. It’s not spooky because he
promised, ‘I’ll be with you always.’ Then just speak to him and listen
in the same way you’re doing with me right now.’ “So,
Father, I tried it and I’ve liked it so much that I now do it a couple
of hours every day. I’m careful though. If
my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she’d send me to the
funny farm.”
The priest was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the
old guy to
continue on the journey. Then he prayed
with him, anointed him, and returned to the rector y.
Two nights later the daughter called to tell the priest that
her daddy
had died that afternoon.
“Did he seem to die in peace?” he asked.
“Yes, when I left the house around 2, he called me over to
his bedside,
told me one of his corny jokes, and kissed me on the cheek. When I got back from the store and hour later, I
found him dead. But there was something strange, Father. In
fact beyond strange - kinda weird. Apparently, just before Daddy died,
he leaned over and rested his head on a chair beside the bed.”
Our
journey thus incorporates what the
philosophers and theologians tell us, how Scripture forms the basis as
it leads us on, and finally our personal acceptance of God in our
lives. In this way, we will attain the fulfillment of our journey which
is
eternal life.