Jesus and Riches

Jesus in his discourse (Mt 6:24) speaks much more often of wealth and the wealthy than of poverty and the poor.

One of the reasons for the ever contemporary relevance of the Gospel is the fact that it does not conform to the dominant tendencies of “public opinion” or of statistics. Paradoxically, it is also one of the reasons why it has had so little visible effect on the majority of the people.

The comments of Jesus on wealth and money are precisely in line with this. In times like these when ideologies that originated in capitalism or in Marxism give a privileged place to the economic sphere and make the problem of production and distribution of wealth the cornerstone of their historical success, the works of Jesus appear anachronistic and condemned to being admired but no imitated.

The recounting of the teachings of the Gospel on wealth and the wealthy do not present an optimistic balance. Jesus does not condemn money in itself. This is consistent with his approach: he condemns no thing: he condemns or forewarns against people’s attitudes toward things. In the case of money or wealth, his warnings are so systematic that Christians are forced to examine all our “spontaneous” criteria and attitudes about the question.

For Jesus, the radical ambiguity of wealth consists in its tendency to become “lord” of the human heart. This new “god” leaves room for no other. Either we serve the God who frees us or the god who by enriching us chains us to the earth. The option between Christ and money implies a vision of life and of the human vocation. To serve money is to both make a god out of the earth and to pervert the purpose of its goods and of the person who uses them. The warning of Christ in this respect is clear: “do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth”…they are precarious and futile…they pervert the heart and the reason for existence…”For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”. (Mt 6:19-21)

That is why Jesus is so severe with the rich. His teaching on human liberation consists not only in declaring the poor blessed and privileged heirs of the kingdom. There is also a warning and a call to the rich. It even surprises us, in reading the Gospel, to note that Jesus addresses at least as many discourses to the rich as to the poor, discourses with a content equally liberating though different.

For a rich person “it is more difficult to enter into the kingdom of God than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.” (Lk 18:24) He who makes of riches “his consolation… shall hunger…and mourn and weep.” (Lk6:24-25) Before God, “he is pitiable, poor, blind and naked and deserves compassion.” (Apoc 3:17)

In his discourse on riches, Jesus, for whom “all is possible,” (Lk 18:27) and who “came to seek and to save what was lost,” (Lk 19:10) has a redeeming intention. The rich man must change, ceasing to “store up things” for himself instead of becoming rich before God. (Lk 12:21) He must rediscover the deep significance of his riches and money according to Christ’s criteria.
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Following Jesus by Segundo Galilea pp. 35-37.

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The Samaritano

“The Samaritan was a brother to the wounded one, not by reason of his religion (the priest, the Levite, and the Jew had the same religion: the Samaritan was a heretic), nor by his race, nationality, or ideology (it was precisely he who was the only one who had nothing common with the Jew), but rather by his charitable attitude.

My neighbor is not the one who shares my religion, my country, my family, or my ideas. My neighbor is the one to whom I am committed. ‘We become brothers and sisters when we commit ourselves to those who need us; we become more so when our commitment is more complete. The Samaritan was not content to give himself partially to the wounded man. He treated him, he bandaged him, he picked him up and carried him to an inn and paid for all that he needed.

The giving of oneself in love is the measure of brotherhood/sisterhood. We are not brothers and sisters if we do not know how to be effectively compassionate to the end.

To approach the Jew, the Samaritan had to make an effort to come out of himself, to put aside any thought of his race, his religion, his prejudices. “One must know that the Jews do no communicate with the Samaritans.” (Lk 10: 36) He had to put his own world and his own immediate interests aside. He abandoned his travel plans and gave of his time and money. As for the priest and the Levite, we do not know if they were better or worse than the Samaritan, but we do know that they never left their own world. Their projects, which they did not want to upset by interrupting their journey, were more important to them than the challenge to become brothers to the wounded man. They considered their ritual and religious functions more important than fraternal charity.” pp 28-29.
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The central theme of Galilea’s book is following Jesus. This is the root of Christianity and ought to be the basis of any movements of spiritual renewal. This is the challenge to the faith in our generation: to find Jesus Christ in the depths of the disconcerting reality that surrounds us and to follow him in the way of the Gospel until we come face to face with the Father. This Gospel spirituality is a necessary foundation for the liberation movement. It must be the foundation that nourishes the struggle against the forces of darkness and evil in our personal lives and in our society.
The following selection is from Following Jesus pp. 28-29.

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Christological Message

"When we try to determine the human image of Jesus and His Christological message, we find ourselves faced with a task that does not really admit of any definite solution. At least, the personality given us in the Gospels is impossible to understand and to penetrate. It is so radically paradoxical and different from anything that we know that it defies any classification. Just when we think we know him he appears in another way, with new traits that we had not discovered and that blur our previous outline. To contemplate Christ introduces us to an inexhaustible personality.

“Even so, each of us has a personal idea of the Lord more or less well founded, more or less unconscious, forming part of a Christology that influences our very being and all our auctions as Christians.

“Even though we do not notice it, into this image that we make of the personality of Jesus goes our own manner of being, our own psychology, and the various forms of our egoism. We are always in danger of deforming, according to our own conditioning, the real personality of the Lord. We tend to shape Jesus in our own image and likeness, according to our measure, justifying our mediocrity and infidelity to adapt the message of the person of Christ to us and not us to him. The only way to avoid this constant temptation will be the permanent return to the contemplation of the Christ of the Gospels. Otherwise, we shall transform Christology into a projection of ourselves and Christian praxis into an ideology in which we accept the aspects of the Gospel that fit into an already personal position or ideology.

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(Following Jesus by Segundo Galilea pp. 15-16)

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Authenticity of Christian Spirituality

“The originality and authenticity of Christian spirituality consists in this: that we follow a God who took upon himself our human condition. One who had a history like ours, who lived our experiences, who made choices, who devoted himself to a cause for which he suffered, who had successes, joys, and failures, for which he gave his life. That man, Jesus of Nazareth, like us in all except sin, in whom lived the fullness of God, is the only model for our discipleship.

For this reason the starting point of our Christian spirituality is the encounter with the humanity of Jesus. This is what gives Christian spirituality all its realism. In making the historical Jesus the model of our discipleship, Catholic spirituality uproots us from the illusion of: spiritualism,” of an “idealistic” Christianity, of values that are abstract and alien to historical experiences and demands. It frees us from the temptation of adapting Jesus to our image, to our ideals, to our interests.

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Conversion

“All Christians know what conversion is: to conform ourselves to the values the Christ taught, which brings us out of our egoism, injustice and pride. We also know that conversion is the foundation of all Christian fidelity in our personal lives, in the apostolate, or in social, professional and political involvement, conversion pulls us out of our hiding places and “lead you to a place you do not want to go.” (John 21:18) in following Christ….

All Christians, whatever their status, secular of ecclesiastical, are permanently called to the dynamism of their conversion in which there are no privileges or respect for persons, and which radically depends on our response to the call of Christ. This response conditions every human and ecclesial project and is the only authentic verification of any commitment….

We are not always aware of the path of conversion, or of its unique dynamism. Christ does not call us only once during our lives. We receive many calls. Each one is more demanding than the last and is part of the great crises of our human-Christian growth. Conversion is a process that calls us to a radical evangelical life in our “world” in order to live the exodus of our faith and to follow the Lord.” (pp. 2-4) 

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Following Jesus

by Segundo Galilea
The central theme of Galilea’s book is following Jesus. This is the root of Christianity and ought to be the basis of any movements of spiritual renewal. This is the challenge to the faith in our generation: to find Jesus Christ in the depths of the disconcerting reality that surrounds us and to follow him in the way of the Gospel until we come face to face with the Father. This Gospel spirituality is a necessary foundation for the liberation movement. It must be the foundation that nourishes the struggle against the forces of darkness and evil in our personal lives and in our society.

Following Jesus

pp.1-2.

“Often we cannot see the forest for the trees. The same happens with spirituality. For many Catholics, this word conjures up a multitude of demands, of beginnings, of theological ideas, that end up by covering up the simple and essential essence of it all. Others seem to confuse this or that important “tree” with the “forest.” They identify spirituality (and to speak of spirituality is to speak of Christian life) with prayer, or with the cross, or with a complete dedication to others.

The Gospel reveals to us the basis of all spirituality and gives back to us the demanding simplicity of Christian identity. It teaches us that to be a disciple of Jesus is follow him, and that this is what Christian life is. Jesus basically demanded that we follow him, and all our Christianity is built on our response to this all. Since then the essence of Christian spirituality has been the following of Christ under the guidance of the church.

To be a Christian is to follow Christ out of love. It is Jesus who asks us if we love him; it is we who answer that we do. It is he who invites us to follow him: Simon Peter, do you love me?...Yes, Lord…then follow me. (John 21:1-19)

And that’s all. Just as simple as that. Although we are ignorant, full of failings, Jesus will lead us to sanctity, provided that we begin by loving him and that we have the courage to follow him.”

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Mary and the Prophecy

(Lk 2:32-40)

Our previous Bible text ended by telling us that Mary and Joseph marveled at the wonderful things that were being said about Jesus (2:33). In the continuation of the text we have just reflected on, they are certainly brought down to earth with a bump! Simeon blesses then and turns to Mary saying, “This child of yours will cause many people in Israel to fall and others to stand. The Child will be like a warning sign. Many people will reject him, and you Mary, will suffer as though you had be stabbed by a dagger.” (2:23-35).

St. Luke does not beat about the bush. He tells it like it is. Following Jesus necessarily leads us into conflict. Everyone must make a decision for or against God, and this is done not necessarily in words but in the practical reality of everyday life. He was rejected, and making a fundamental decision for Christ will certainly not guarantee a peaceful life. Problems are part of life, but they can have a positive side by eliciting strength from us that we did not know we possessed.

It should be no surprise that the way of prayer does have its problems. Prayer is a personal relationship with God and any relationship, specially this one, will change us in some way. God is not a comfort blanket or an instantly obedient hot water tap. God is the Creator of all that is, seen and unseen. Human reason can reach out towards the divine but we could know little of God without the revelation given to us in the history of the Chosen People and above all in Jesus Christ. Throughout the whole of the Bible we can read with amazement that God, who created us, wants to have a relationship with us, but in order to make us capable of receiving the fullness of life we must be prepared. Therefore, God leads us and purifies us. If our prayer does not lead us to consent to God’s action in our lives, there is something wrong.

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Mary with the Child Jesus in the Temple

(Luke 2: 22-33)

“Mary and Joseph were struck by everything that was being said about Jesus when they took him to the Temple in Jerusalem for the first time. Churches are hopefully sacred spaces where the communication with God is encouraged, but God is not confined to places of worship. When we enter a church, hopefully, we are willing and ready to listen to what God has to say to us. However, God speaks in many different ways and uses many forms. Often our time of prayer can seem very dry or distracted, and we can think that God has nothing to say to us, but in fact, God will communicate with us outside the time of prayer. In order to receive what God wants to give us we must remain on God’s wavelength throughout the day. Our time of prayer is an encounter with God, no matter what it feels like. It is this daily meeting with God that tunes us in and makes us sensitive to what God is saying throughout the day. All great sportsmen and women practice a lot; without the arduous practice they would soon lose their touch that makes them that bit special. Without prayer a Christian begins to lose touch with the source of all life, and it becomes more and more difficult to remain open to whatever God desires to communicate.

“There are several new prayer forms that are specifically intended to help people to be open to receive the gift of contemplation. Perhaps the most popular are ‘Centering prayer’ (otherwise known as ‘Prayer in Secret’) and ‘Christian Meditation’. Both use a prayer word, though in different ways. Christian Meditation uses a mantra, that is, the constant repeating of ‘ma-ra-na-tha” (Aramaic for “Come Lord”). The mantra is to be recited silently and interiorly with four equally stressed syllables. Attention is to be given to the sound of the mantra and whenever distractions arise, one is to return to the mantra. Centering Prayer on the other hand, does not use a mantra but a ‘sacred word’ that is, a word that is sacred to the individual. The sacred word is not repeated constantly like a mantra, but is used only when you find that you are engaged with any thought, in order to reiterate your intention to consent to the presence and action of God in your life. It is silent and is the symbol of your fundamental intention.

“Teachers of both these forms of silent prayer suggest that it be used twice a day for twenty or thirty minutes each time. However, anything is better than nothing, and only you can decide how much time you can spare.”

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Mary and the Birth of Jesus

Luke 2:1-20

“God’s ways are not our ways. Mary thought deeply about everything that took place in order to discover what God was saying. When we are seeking God’s will we must not ignore the obvious. We have the commandments, and the teaching and example of Jesus. However, there are times when things are not so obvious. In our reading, the shepherds heard about the birth of the Messiah from a choir of heavenly angels. Usually we do not receive messages like that, and we have to walk by faith, which is dark in the sense that what we believe may not be the most obvious thing. The Carmelite St. John of the Cross writes beautifully about the “dark night” as a metaphor for the inevitable sense of loss that the individual prayer experiences as he or she matures. It is a law of human development that we have to leave behind many stages in order to grow up. It is tragic to meet someone who is an adult but whose emotional responses are more suited to a child. Normally we learn from the experience of life what is appropriate and what is not. In the relationship with God, the believer has to grow up, and in doing so leave behind a childish way of relating. The Gospel command to be childlike is not the same as being childish. We have to learn to relate as adult children of God.

“It can be hard to leave ways or things that gave us some security. If other things do not take their place immediately, the individual will go through a process that is akin to mourning. Contemplative prayer is something that God does in us, and not something we can do. However, it seems that God often responds when we show that we are in earnest. Of course, as soon as you think you have God figured out, things will not happen the way you think! In the analogy we used in reflection 7, we can only wait at the number 9 bus-stop. Perhaps we will have to wait there a very long time, or perhaps, the bus will come very quickly. God may call us to greater silence, and may waken gently within us, as it were. At first, the presence of God will be so gentle as to be virtually imperceptible. Our awareness of God’s presence and action within us may grow or may not. That is not really important. What is important is that we respond in whatever way we can to what we believe God is doing within us.

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The Magnificat

(Lk 1:46-54)

(PP 78-79 )The ‘false self’ is the name given by many to the way human beings seek happiness in ways that can never fully satisfy. We all want to be happy, and we are programmed to seek happiness. Human beings are made for God and only God can fill “the deep caverns of feeling.” (John of the Cross) Unfortunately, our tendency is to seek the fulfilment that only God can give in ways that can never satisfy. We believe that we will be fully satisfied if we can control our little world. If we are receiving the affection that we believe is our due, and if our basic survival is guaranteed. Of course, the more we have, the more we seek, and our demands become impossible to be satisfied. Our tendency is to turn anything into an idol, that is, we seek from people and objects the enduring happiness that can come only from God.

The ‘false self’ will seek even to use God and religion for selfish purposes. This is one reason why religion itself is sometimes accused of being a menace to humanity! People will use anything, including religion, to fulfil what they perceive to be their needs. Religion, of course, is intended to lead us to God. All the world religions, as far as I know, speak of peace and love and so on. … The decision to follow the still small voice of God, who calls us to enter on the path to eternal life, is a very personal – and sometimes courageous - decision, without many of the usual social supports of the past.

When we actually begin to seek God seriously, and not just play at being religious, we enter more deeply into the relationship with God who is determined to bring us to the fullness of life. This fullness requires the death of the ‘false self’, which is not accomplished overnight, but rather takes at least a lifetime of responding to the grace of God. At all times we have to be on the lookout for the ‘false self’ poking its nose into our affairs. When we begin to take the relationship with God seriously, we naturally turn to prayer in some form. Prayer is the relationship with God, and so there are innumerable ways to respond to God’s initiative. Any prayer that is an opining to God is good. At different times on our journey, different ways of prayer will suit more than others. The Eucharist and the Divine Office are the prayer of Christ, and sharing with other people in this prayer is always important on the journey, but at some points it will seem more meaningful than at others. The liturgy is always meaningful, but at times, our ability to appreciate its depths is not as great as at other times. Reciting the vocal prayers many of us learned as children often remains a staple of our relationship with God, but the balance of this way of prayer and other more silent ways changes as we grow in our relationship with God. We do normally have to spend some time thinking about God, and about the various aspects of our faith, so that the relationship with God does not remain superficial. We can see many examples in the Gospels where Jesus challenged the disciples to grow in their faith. God challenges us, if we fail to respond, we cannot hope for a deep relationship. There does come a time in every relationship when words become less important, and a different way of responding is required. Words can become less important and silence more meaningful.

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The Kings and The Holy Innocents

This Bit of Wisdom is the first of ten selections from Let It Be: Praying the Scriptures in Company with Mary, the Mother of God by Father Joseph Chalmers, O. Carm. former Provincial General of the Carmelites of the Ancient Observance.

In the text, Fr. Chalmers presents a Lectio Divina of all the passages in the bible that include Mary, the Mother of God. He has reflections on the five steps of read, reflect, respond, rest and act. In his observations on the fourth step of resting he has some great insights on the spiritual life as observed in the context of the Carmelite tradition. I will be using these reflections for our “Bit of Wisdom” selections and reflections.
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Pp. 38-39 “The mystery of evil stalks our world. When we are really honest we can glimpse the possibility for every evil in the depths of our own heart. That can be shocking, but is in fact liberating. We no longer self-righteously condemn other people, but we can understand that their actions are the result of a chain of events, some of which were out of their control. We begin to love the sinner while still hating the sin. Because we realize ‘there but for the grace of God go I’. While continuing to struggle against evil in all its forms, we leave all judgement to God. Condemnation of others is destructive of our own peace. When we go to prayer we can take all these concerns and issues and place them in God’s hands for we are certainly not going to solve them. Our best approach is silence, for in silence we become gradually conformed to the mind of Christ

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The desert and garden

“Any struggle with addiction is a desert because it involves deprivation. If our motivations are primarily utilitarian, this deprivation may consist only of the denial of one specific object of attachment: trying to do without so much food, trying to give up tobacco, and so on. With major addiction or more conscious spiritual motivation, the desert can grow to encompass all of life: every habit may be exposed to the searing, purifying sun; every false prop is vulnerable to relinquishment; and one can be left truly dependent upon the Grace of God for sustenance.

Most of our deserts lie between these extremes and most of the time we do little more that dance around their edges. All the same, deserts enrich our lives immeasurably. Each desert holds seeds of repentance, possibilities of recognizing how mixed our motives really are. And with the rain of grace, each desert holds the possibility of our reclaiming our true heart’s desire. Even if we only touch their edges our deserts teach us about the limits of personal power and point us toward that constant center of ourselves where our dignity is found in our dependence upon God.”

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Faith demands risks

“Our choices of freedom are always pure, and in this purity faith is always an act of will. But God is not absent; God’s grace is more radiant than ever at such times. Its preservation of our freedom becomes most clear when all our other props are taken away. We can even say some inspiration of grace enables us to choose rightly in such situations, for we can pray like the father of the elliptic boy prayed to Jesus: “I have faith, help my lack of faith.” (Mk 9:24) But we must understand that our enabling is pure invitation and empowerment. Grace empowers us to choose rightly in what seem to be the most choiceless of situations, but it does not, and will not, determine that choice.

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Grace makes Freedom Posible

“The Beatitudes of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount are an unparalleled testimony to the glory of
freedom from attachment. The blessedness they promise comes not just from heroic battles with one’s addictions, but from being unwillingly deprived of their gratification. The poor, the grief-stricken and the persecuted, for example, have had no choice, they suffer and they need human help, yet, in a way, they may be closer to freedom because they have less to be attached to. Thus, Jesus’ words not only issue a call to relinquish attachments; they also point out that we cannot do it alone. Liberation finally must come through grace, not solely through one’s own efforts. Jesus taught people to pray for grace: “Lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil, for thine is the power…”

Sin, then, is not just ignorance or more straying, but a kind of bondage or slavery from which one must be delivered into freedom. Freedom is possible through a mysterious, incarnational synthesis of human intention and divine grace. The Issue is not simply whether one follows personal attachment or follows God. It is instead a question of aligning one’s intention with the God within and with us, through love and in grace. To make the alignment possible, Jesus proclaimed a message of radical forgivingness, not only forgiveness of humanity by God, but also forgiveness of one another by people. In this radical forgiveness, it is even possible to be freed of attachment to one’s own guilt for or justification of the wounds one has inflicted upon others. True love of self, a reverence for the essential goodness of God’s creation, is made possible. Herein lies the potential for endless freedom in the service of love. Nothing, not even one’s own sinfulness, has to remain as an obstacle to the two great commandments.

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We have three Choices

“The choices that are open to us in response to our experiences of God’s loving, threatening call may sometimes be excruciatingly difficult to execute, but they are quite simple to understand. There are really only three options; we have already touched on them all in our discussion, and most of us have already used them all extensively in our lives. First, we may try to deny or avoid God’s call, repressing our desire and displacing its energy. Much of the time we are successful at this, but the call is bound to break through our defenses and haunt us with gentle nudges or hound us with relentless yearnings. Second, we may make images of spiritual reality, cellular representations that enable us to feel a measure of power over it instead of remaining dependent upon it. Third, we can try to be present to the mystery in a gentle, open-handed, and cooperative way. This is the contemplative option – not any system of complicated exercises, but the simple and courageous attempt to bear as much as one can of reality just as it is. To be contemplative, then, is not to be a special kind of person. Contemplation is simply trying to face life in a truly undefended and open-eyed way. 

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Freedom is Always Possible

“We are dependent upon grace for liberation from our addictions, but those very addictions impair our receptivity to grace. The message may not sound like good news. Yet God creates and cares for us in such a way that our addictions can never completely vanquish our freedom. Addiction may oppress our desire, erode our wills, confound our motivations, and contaminate our judgment, but its bondage is never absolute.

Because of God’s continuing love, the human spirit can never be completely obliterated. No matter how oppressed we are, by other people and circumstances or by our own internal addictions, some small capacity for choice remains unvanquished.”

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To Stand in Need of Grace

“We are created for love and freedom, addiction hinders us, and grace is necessary for salvation. For
Christians, grace is the dynamic outpouring of God’s loving nature that flows into and through creation in an endless self-offering of healing, love, illumination, and reconciliation. It is a gift that we are free to ignore, reject, ask for, or simply accept. And it is a gift that is often given despite our intentions and errors. At such times, when grace is so clearly given unrequested, uninvited, even undeserved, there can be no authentic response but gratitude and awe.

It is possible to approach grace as if it were just another thing to be addicted to, something we could collect or hoard. But this kind of grasping can capture only an image of grace. Grace itself cannot be possessed; it is eternally free, and like the Spirit that gives it, it blows where it will. We can seek it and try to be open to it, but we cannot control it.

Similarly, grace seeks us but will not control us. Saint Augustine once said that God is always trying to give good things to us, but our hands are too full to receive them. If our hands are full, they are full of the things to which we are addicted. And not only our hands, but also our hearts, minds, and attention are clogged with addiction. Our addictions fill up the spaces within us, spaces where grace might flow.

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Grce is present in both Winning and Losing

“I can honestly say, then, that it was my work with addicted people, and the consequent realization of my own addictive behavior, that brought me to my knees. I am glad. Grace was there. If my attachments had not caused me to fail miserably at controlling my life and work, I doubt I ever would have recovered the spiritual desire and the sense of God that had been so precious to me as a child. Compared to what happens to people who suffer from alcoholism or narcotic addiction, what happened to me may not seem much of a “rock bottom.” But it had the same grace-full effect. To state it quite simply, I had tried to run my life on the basis of my own willpower alone. When my supply of success at this egotistic autonomy ran out, I became depressed. And with the depression, by means of grace, came a chance for spiritual openness.

I never did learn how to make spiritual experiences happen to chemically addicted people so their lives would be transformed. I didn’t learn much of anything that helped me treat addictions, or for that matter any other form of illness. But I did become slightly more humble, through a growing appreciation of what I could and could not do to help myself or anyone else. I also learned that all people are addicts, and that addictions to alcohol and other drugs are simply more obvious and tragic addictions than others have. To be alive is to be addicted, and to be alive and addicted is to stand in need of grace.”
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Gerald May’s Addiction and Grace 

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Desire - addiction and human Freedom

“After twenty years of listening to the yearnings of people’s hearts, I am convinced that all human beings have an inborn desire for God. Whether we are consciously religious or not, this desire is our deepest longing and our most precious treasure. It gives us meaning. Some of us have repressed this desire, burying it beneath so many other interests that we are completely unaware of it. Or we may experience it in different ways – as a longing for wholeness, completion, or fulfillment. Regardless of how we describe it, it is a longing for love. It is a hunger of love, to be lover, and to move closer to the source of love. This yearning is the essence of the human spirit; it is the origin of our highest hopes and most noble dreams.

Modern theology describes this desire as God given. In an outpouring of love, God creates us and plants the seeds of this desire within us. Then, throughout our lives, God nourishes this desire, drawing us toward fulfillment of the two great commandments: “Thou shalt love thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself.” If we could claim our longing for love as the true treasure of our hearts, we would, with God’s grace, be able to live these commandments.

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The uniform of love

Ultimately, our yearning for God is the most important aspect of our humanity, our most precious treasure; it gives our existence meaning and direction. There has been considerable debate about whether this “human religious impulse” really is universal, whether it represents a true primary drive, and so on. I am convinced that it is indeed universal and primary, and, moreover, that it is a very specific desire for an actual loving communion, even union, in an absolutely personal relationship with God.

I think it is this desire that Paul spoke of when he tried to explain the unknown God to the Athenians: “It is God who gives to all people life and breath and all things… God created us to seek God, with the hope that we might grope after God through the shadows of our ignorance, and find God.” The psalms are full of expressions of deep longing for God: thirsting, hungering, yearning. And God promises a response: “When you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me.”

For me, the energy of our basic desire for God is the human spirit, planted within us and nourished endlessly by the Holy Spirit of God. In this light, the spiritual significance of addiction is not just that we lose freedom through attachment to things, nor even that things so easily become our ultimate concerns. Of much more importance is that we try to fulfill our longing for God through objects of attachment. For example, God wants to be our perfect lover, but instead we seek perfection in human relationships and are disappointed when our lovers cannot love us perfectly. God wants to provide our ultimate security, but we seek our safety in power and possessions and then find we must continually worry about them. We seek satisfaction of our spiritual longing in a host of ways that may have very little to do with God. And, sooner or later, we are disappointed. pp. 92-93

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