Friday 18 September 2009

We Are Incomplete

Most of the time we act as though we are complete. But we are not. From birth we need others, and none of us knows everything, in fact none of us knows what we need to know. There are gaps, holes within us. There is a God shaped hole that, if left unacknowledged, we will try to fill. But instead of filling it with God we will have to fill it with that which cannot fill: 'stuff', relationships, or whatever. Idols in other words. The God hole in us can only be filled with that which is greater than us, transcendent; the finite will collapse under the strain when shoved in the hole. No wonder we have to shove more and more 'stuff' in.

If you wonder what a humanity that fills the God hole would be like, then study the Gospels. Jesus is not confused about what goes where in his life. In him the finite (his humanity) can carry the infinite, but only because it is open and empty. The great paradox: when we are empty we can carry the infinite, when full, well, all we carry is the finite as though it could function and satisfy like the infinite. Idolatry is the result.