Paul Wadell...
"In a Christian theological anthropology, to be a person is to rest in a gift.
Everyone (and everything) exists in virtue of a love they cannot give
themselves, but also a love that cannot be denied them or ever taken away from
them because it is God-given. It is not rationality, freedom,
self-determination, or moral awareness that makes us persons. It is God's love,
and that is something everyone has. The trouble with defining what constitutes
us as persons in terms of some quality or qualities we might have is that anyone
who lacks these qualities or who is judged to them to a deficient degree risks
being assessed as less than human or not truly a person...
We can bristle at this understanding of ourselves because we rebel against the idea of being needy and dependent, and are often affronted by the thought that our life is neither our possession nor achievement, but a gift. We want to be self-possessed and self-sufficient, not creatures who are inherently and inescapably indebted because we live always from the power of God's generosity, not from our own strength, ingenuity, wealth, achievements, or resourcefulness. We typically see dependence as a liability, as an unwelcome concession to our finitude, and think to the degree we must depend on anyone (perhaps especially God) that we are not free. Dependence and need, are something we should grow out of and spend the best years of our lives working to avoid. We aim for autonomy and independence, and think the less vulnerable we are the better...
But it is actually the case that our freedom begins the moment we acknowledge and embrace our dependence (Dan interjects: freedom as we acknowledge our dependence!). Accepting my gift as a gift frees me from the burden of having to establish myself or from having to give my life stature or legitimacy. I do not have to make myself count, I do not have to make myself matter. I matter because I am loved, and I live on account of that love. Too, knowing that life is something I continually receive means I do not have to cling desperately to my self in the fear that any giving will always result in a loss of self. I cannot lose what I never truly possess, but I can freely share what I know I will always receive...Instead of seeing my life as an easily depleted resource I cannot afford to share, I can be extravagant in giving myself because I know whatever I expend, I am always receiving...
This is what it means to live in the freedom of love. Knowing we are loved, knowing that 'the love that passes understanding is available to us in the very act of our being, because we are constantly receiving that from our God,' frees us to reach out to others in love. We do not have to live cautiously and craftily, hiding ourselves from others lest they steal life away from us, for they cannot take from us the gift that is always there for us. We live from a never-ending abundance of love...If the Christian moral life is training in happiness, an essential part of that training is coming to see that like God, we are most ourselves when we make a gift of ourselves in love."
Thoughts? Reactions?
