Posts tagged realizing

What do I have a GIVENNESS NOW to?

Realizing what we are.


“As if the sorrows and stupidities of the world could overwhelm me now that I realize what we all are. 

I wish everyone could realize this.


But there is no way of telling people they are all walking around shining like the sun.”  Thomas Merton, March 19, 1958, Journal III, 181-183

…as if the sorrows and stupidities of the world could overwhelm me now.

I have a GIVENNESS NOW to realizing what we are.

What do I have a GIVENNESS NOW to?

The realizing the reality of the removed rib.


“John Paul explains that this essential dimension of gift is revealed in the book of Genesis.  “When God says ‘It is not good that man should be alone’ (Genesis 2:18), he affirms that ‘alone,’ man does not completely realize this essence.  


He realizes it only by existing ‘with someone’ - and even more deeply and completely - by existing ‘for someone.’”


Created in God’s image, we are made for communion by giving ourselves to others, which is the basis to our development.  The very essence of our humanity is found at this profound level of giving ourselves.

In other words, we are at our best not when we are taking, or calculating our interests, or maximizing our utilities, or shouting claims of freedom, but when we give of ourselves.  This vocation to be human is a call that is heard by the sheer fact that we are created, which makes it a universal call.  
God calls all people out of nothing and chaos and into being, into a relationship with Him and all others who have been created.  This call, this voice of creation, reveals to us that a core dimension of our identity as individuals is found in our relationships and in our gift of ourselves to others.


This is not a reality we can deny, unless we want to deny ourselves.  This dynamic of self-gift is a natural law of sorts - if we break it, we break ourselves.


This call to give is further specified to a call of holiness of every Christian on account of their baptism.  This vocation to be human, what Lumen Gentium calls “the universal call to holiness,” is fundamentally expressed in how we give of ourselves.  

In more Christian eschatological terms ‘we actually become, eternally, what we have given ourselves to.’”  Michael Naughton, Integrating Work and Leisure: The Complementary Relationship between John Paul’s Laborem Exercens and Dies 

…existing with someone?


…existing for someone.




Why else was Adam’s rib removed and given to Eve?

It was not a reality he could deny, unless he wanted to deny himself.




This dynamic of self-gift is a natural law of sorts.







Broken rib?

…if we break it, we break ourselves.

I have a GIVENNESS NOW to realizing the reality of the removed rib.