Immortal Diamond, by Richard RohrIn his book Immortal Diamond, Richard Rohr says that “we are made for transcendence and endless horizons, but our small ego usually gets in the way until we become aware of its petty preoccupations and eventually seek a deeper truth”.
This spiritual desire is well described in Psalm 42: “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God” and is a maxim of St Augustine: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
There is within us a thirst for meaning. As we long for God we soon discover that longing for God and longing for our true self is the same longing. Rohr says that the deepest human need and longing is to overcome the separateness, the distance from what always seems ‘over there’ and ‘beyond me’.
Yet the human temptation is to run from and deny not just the divine presence, but our own true selves, that is, our souls, our inner destiny, our true identity. Our true self is that part of us that knows who we are and whose we are, although largely unconsciously. Our false self is just who we think we are – but thinking does not make it so.
The concept of ‘false self’ was introduced by English psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott. According to him, the false self is a psychological defence mechanism that develops in response to environmental failure during early childhood.
Longing for God and longing for our true self is the same longing
The false self is a façade that an individual creates to protect their true self from being hurt or rejected by others. It is a mask that conceals the true feelings and desires of an individual and presents a socially acceptable image to the world. In contrast, the ‘true self’ is the spontaneous and authentic experience of an individual that makes him or her feel alive and real.
God is never an object to be found or possessed just like other objects, but one who shares our own deepest subjectivity – or our self… our soul… the divine dwelling.
Rohr maintains that God’s life and love flow through us as soon as we are ready to allow it. This is the core meaning of faith – to dare to trust that God could, will, and does have eternal compassion toward us.
Our human tendency is to seek our comfort and protected zone, to reject confronting the authentic scope of our existence, to reject that Christ is “the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6) and that through his crucifixion he spared us from eternal damnation. We tend to forget that Jesus, through his resurrection, promised us an eternal life… “rejoice only that your name is written in heaven” (Luke 10:20).
God calls us for an intimate relationship with him, which eventually transforms us into our ‘true self’. People who find no satisfaction in themselves will seek it in vain elsewhere.
Jesus reveals the goal, the fullness, and the purpose of humanity itself, which is “that we are able to share in the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4).
As Pope Francis said, to know oneself is a gift and a grace that allows Christians to properly discern between feelings and convictions.
Gordon Vassallo, Accredited spiritual guide, Centre for Ignatian Spirituality