We can approach truth with words and concepts, but to really know it we have to experience it. Truth is like a symphony whose beauty we cannot appreciate without learning how to read, play and sing. The word of God is such a symphony: “Let my tongue sing of thy word, for all thy commandments are righteousness” (Psalm 119:172). When many people surround us, we realize that we are pretty insignificant. But amid this crowd, where everyone is “nothing”, we feel deep in our heart that we have a mission in this world. Of course, our thoughts are not God’s thoughts (Isaiah 55:8). God is unknowable and we know about him only what he reveals to us in a world created according to a divine logic. God doesn’t have to do anything. As the absolute perfection, he can spread to the infinite.
That’s why God created the world intentionally chaotic - an imperfection that determines all perfecting. He chose man to be a vase to demonstrate the richness of his grace and to collaborate on the perfecting of this imperfect world. At his creation, man tasted the « breath of life » that rose in his soul thirsting for divine perfection. Hence his constant struggles to improve the world and himself. This divine spirit of life is what is perfect in the imperfect man. It gives us the faith to be necessary; a conviction which results from the fact that we are needed by God. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). To think that nobody needs us makes unhappy.
Many believe that God is somewhere in space where he decided, for some whimsical reason, to create humans. Such a vision takes away any significance to human existence: man is useful for nothing and his life has no sense. Fortunately, the Gospel clearly shows that God, who never ceases to act in creation, needs humans to demonstrate his perfection. Christ placed his work in the continuity of God’s work: “My Father is working until now, and I myself am working” (John 5:17). The certainty of being needed is part of the human happiness. God answers to this by choosing the imperfect men to express through them his divine perfection. “For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that he may strongly support those whose heart is completely His” (2 Chronicles 16:9). So, by choosing the imperfect men to demonstrate his divine perfection through them, God answers their need for happiness.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was a waste and emptiness” (Genesis 1:1-2). This chaotic earth gives the impression of an unfinished creation. But it is precisely the chaotic state that makes the creation perfect, because so it lends itself ideally to a development towards an infinite perfection. Our vocation is to contribute to the transformation of the chaotic world into a place of harmony and peace. That work is made in parallel with the transformation of the chaos that reigns in the hearts. To do that, we dispose of the power of the Holy Spirit to witness up to the remotest part of the earth. To get involved in this mission is the promise of beautiful victories: “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place” (2 Corinthians 2:14).
The saying, “Nobody is perfect” expresses precisely what is so perfect in this world. Certainly, it is true only if we use imperfection as starting point to enter the narrowed way which leads to life (Matthew 7:14). If we do not, we exclude God from the life and will lose the meaning of our existence. God knows that our mission is difficult and that we will have no victory without giving up our life for his sake. “He who has found his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for my sake shall find it.” (Matthew 10:39) Thus, the hearts and the world are transformed slowly into places where they express divine perfection. “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away”. (Revelation 21:1)
Kurt WOERLEN
Commentaires