YOU CREATED US FOR YOURSELF

St. Augustine (354-430), theologian and Christian philosopher, in his work Confessions, said that he sought happiness and the meaning of life in human passions. But this only brought him anguish and affliction to the point that he considered himself "a place of unhappiness, where he could not stay... but from which he could not depart" [1]. After much searching and inner struggle, however, he met God and was then able to declare: "You created us for Yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in You"[2].

The experience of this scholar is that of all of us, because man is a being turned to God. Archaeology and History attest that religious expression is a characteristic trait of humanity. This phenomenon of human religiosity is found both in ancient cultures and peoples and in today's scientific and technological society. There is religion everywhere, wherever one goes, and sometimes countless in the same geographical area [3].

But this exorbitant number of religions does not mean that man walks with God. Rather, it is evidence that he is lost and separated from the Creator. The multiple divine visions, sketched in religious beliefs, show that he does not know it, but that he carries in his heart something that reminds him of the one who created him. It is as if man longs for God and wants to be reunited with Him. Something in the heart of the human being attracts him to the Divinity.

No matter how fulfilled he feels, man realizes, in the depths of himself, that he still lacks something. And that something is God. The absence of God in man impels him to desire him so that he may become complete. He cannot be happy apart from the love and presence of his Creator. Holy Scripture says, "God is love" (1 John 4:16). And this can be seen in what God said to the Jews, through the Prophet Jeremiah: "With an everlasting love I have loved you; therefore with kindness I draw you" (31:3). It was this love that led him to enter into humanity, through the Son, and to give himself on the cross in favor of man.

For this reason, even though separated from God because of original sin, religiosity is one of the strongest marks of the human being. As it has its origin in God, God's being attracts it. Thus, lost, in the midst of activism and materialism, he hungers for God and desires Him. Spiritually blind, then, he creates religions to explain his existence in the world and seeks the meaning of life in riches, fame and power. But these paths do not satisfy the yearnings of his soul.

The human being is spiritually dead before God because of sin, says the Apostle Paul (Ephesians 2:1-6). And this statement is in line with the teaching of Jesus, who said that people need to be "born again," that is, to be born spiritually, to be born to spiritual things, to be born to God. Jesus said: "no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again... no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit... You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again’. The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit" (John 3:1-8). In other words, the "new birth" is a mystery. We do not know how it happens, but it is in him that man is "begotten again" to God (1 Peter 1:3).

It is only when we go through this spiritual experience, this inner transformation wrought by the Holy Spirit in us, that we find God in this fallen world. And so all anxiety about the things of life and all fear of death dissipate, for we know that we have now returned to his gracious presence. It is as St. Augustine said: "You created us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you."

Antônio Maia - Ph B - M Div

Copyrights reserved