Wednesday, February 11, 2009

What it Means to be Human

My best and most formulative views of “what it means to be” human beings has been gifted to me by great thinkers such as Desmond Tutu, Martin Luther King, Henri Nouwen, Oscar Romero, and Jean Venier. I hope everyone is familiar with at least some of these names, all of them deserve everyone’s time and attention.

For the first issue, the aspect of beauty and creation, and furthermore our own compulsion to create, I have been involved heavily as of late with building landscape models, you know mountains, forests, fields, and deserts? It’s kind of a strange thing, but I love the feeling of a job well done, a small, miniature world that is in my hands, on my fingertips, getting me messy and involved. I feel the echo of a need of God’s own heart. The contours of every piece of terrain, of the shades and textures of color, the very majesty of some form of plaster and clay. It is the same to a certain extent for all the fine arts, an echo of the echo of God’s beautiful creation. This doesn’t necessarily mean landscapes and animals; it covers the whole gamut of human expression, from anger to shock to serenity. The focus and purpose of these works can be rooted sometimes in sin, but the very impulse belies the hidden visage of God. In my own creative acts, the circle is complete. I, the image of God, not only is created, but desires to create. “Seeing in a mirror dimly.” As Wright explains in chapter four, on beauty, there is this “transience” we sense and feel: that is exactly what I mean by seeing in a mirror dimly. Perceiving but not fully realizing.

As I had mentioned in my first post, we in the Western world stress an individual idea of ourselves over the image of a social selves. Sure, we know we need human interaction, but fundamentally we see our society as an expression of ourselves, in other words rooted in each of us as separate people, not a group. Which is actually very stressful to our hearts. We have such deep existential problems because sometimes we see the need to “find ourselves” away from others, in solitude or in retreat. In reality what our hearts are designed to need and crave are definitions others put on us. We our defined as people by how we interact with others. Being human means necessarily to be in relationship. As Wright says: “Without human society, they don’t know who they are anymore. It seems that we humans are designed to find our purpose and meaning not simply in ourselves … but in one another and in the shared meanings and purposes of a family, a street, a workplace, a community, a town, a nation” (31).

To keep renewing this community is where the principles of forgiveness and reconciliation are introduced, and is why they are so important. And in comes justice. “Just”: to make things right again. Justice has much to do with the above issue of relationships and society because justice means a rightness in relationship. Desmond Tutu, in the aftermath of apartheid in South Africa, formed the “Truth and Reconciliation Commission.” He hypothesized that justice was more than retribution, but a restoration of righteousness. When we move towards that goal then we a become more fully human. Tutu addressed the paradox of reconciliation, that yes a wrong has been committed, and also, yes, we need to carry on from it. A paradox yes, but a necessary one!

Spirituality is a revelation, as Wright discusses in quite some detail in the chapter on worship. He delves into the memoirs of John and the things he witnesses of God while imprisoned. Worship is simply an assignment of value. We as humans will always have items we value, hence we will always be worshipful. The real choice is in being empowered through what we worship or being enslaved. Having freedom is a part of what it is to be human. If we choose gods that enslave us, then we do lose our humanity. Spirituality is not just its own distinctive thing on this list for discussion, it applies to every one of these issues of justice, beauty and relationship. The visions of John revealed a sacred, eternal drama that was being played out in these awesome elements of symbol and ritual. We are all central pieces in this drama! It a story bigger than our own. Our placement within this grand story is of prime importance, and we determine this placement to an extent: to walk on God’s side or our own. This story is who we are, and this story is the supernatural, the other, the spiritual.

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