We often hear the challenge from our teachers: “There’s no such thing as a stupid question.” When we hear that we roll our eyes and, more often than not, the room remains stone silent. But questions have real reasons for being. If you think about it, they are probably the greatest indicators of faith and hope. We ask questions because we recognize our ignorance. We ask them because we have a necessary need for an answer, and we have hope that there are answers. If we want good answers to our questions, we ask someone who is considered an ‘expert,’ or we go to some recognized resource because we believe that doing so can lead us to good and useful answers. It is a human thing, isn’t it? We ask questions because we have a natural desire to know. And what is it that we desire to know? Our deepest desire is to know the truth about things.
You might ask, “What does an empty glass and its value have to do with a theological reflection?’ My point is to use this image as a metaphor for us and our faith lives. I am like that empty glass. I need to be filled with something greater than myself, something in which, and through which, I can find my deepest meaning and purpose. An empty glass is meant to be filled. It is then that it gains both meaning and purpose. On the other hand, a glass, or a soul, that is filled with something that is not good, say something that lacks taste or nutritional value, or something foul or poisonous, either remains useless, or can become something dangerous to our physical, or, in this case, to our spiritual health. Our minds and souls are like that empty glass. What do we fill them with?
In our fallen nature, we human beings can tend to get ‘filled up’ with any number of things. These can take on many forms; worldly values, fears, inordinate desires of all kinds, or things that appear to be good, but are bad for us. When we are filled up with these kinds of things, our true purpose and meaning can get lost, distorted, even destroyed. When we are too full of ourselves, there is no room for love in us. We tend to become self-centered and overly self-concerned. When this is so, we begin to think of others as ‘less than’ us, and we treat them so. They become nothing more than ends to our means. And this is the prescription for many evils.
John the Evangelist tells us in his 1st Letter: “Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1Jn. 2: 15). Then he tells us what he means by ‘the things of the world’. “For all that is in the world, sensual lust, enticements for the eyes, and a pretentious life is not from the Father but is from the world” (v. 16). When we fill ourselves up with the ‘things of the world’ seeing them as ends in and of themselves, we grow blind to the true beauty of God’s world. We lose sight of our true meaning and purpose. We lose ourselves.
In matters concerning our faith, the necessary virtue for growth in faith is humility. C.S. Lewis says of humility: “It is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.” It is in humility that we recognize that we, in our creatureliness, are neither large enough, nor empty enough, nor do we live long enough to know ‘everything’ there is to know about the great mystery of God. In the end, it is only through our humble recognition of our need to be filled by something greater than ourselves that God and his grace can enter us. Someone once said that at the center of our hearts, there is a God-shaped hole waiting to be filled. To continue growing in faith, we must let God fill that hole. When we allow God and his infinite love fill our emptiness, we become more and more our true selves. We discover our truest meaning and purpose. We start being his true disciples.
The questions we all have to ask ourselves are: “Am I filled up to the brim with worldly values, fears, or inordinate desires? Am I too full of myself to let God or anybody else in? Might this be why I am not truly satisfied with my life, or why my life seems empty of deeper meaning and purpose? How do I empty myself for God, who is love itself, to enter me? If you can see the value of these questions, you are at the beginning of a very great adventure, indeed.
Jesus, send your Spirit to help me empty my mind, my heart, and my soul of the tyranny and the false burdens of the things of the world. Help me to see that they are fleeting and unworthy of one who is made in Your image and likeness. Let me make enough room in my heart and mind for Your love and Your grace. Fill me up to overflowing, so that I might begin to love the Father, my neighbors, and myself as you loved and continue to love us. Amen.
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