Page 34 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 19

teful human heart. And so there is here as well
an anthropological dimension as well. It is
through thanksgiving for the work of God in
crea�on and redemp�on that we are able to
see that in Christ “all things work to the good”
(compare Romans 8:28).
Moreover, and to borrow a patris�c teaching, it
is the grateful heart that understands its true
iden�ty as a microcosm of crea�on (Meyen-
dorff, 1974, pp. 134-1). As 4th century Egyp�an
St Macarius the Great says
The heart itself is but a small vessel, yet drag-
ons are there, and there are also lions; there
are poisonous beasts and all the treasures of
evil. But there too is God, the angels, the life
and the kingdom, the light and the apostles,
the heavenly ci�es and the treasuries of
grace—all things are there (Homilies, 43.7).
And, in another place, he says,
Within the heart is an unfathomable depth.
There are recep�on rooms and bedchambers in
it, doors and porches, and many offices and
passages. In it is the workshop of righteousness
and of wickedness. In it is death, in it is life….
The heart is Christ’s palace…There Christ the
King comes to take His rest, with the angels and
the spirits of the saints, and He dwells there,
walking within it and placing His kingdom there
(Homilies 15:32-33).
Seen in this light, it is no wonder that (like Nar-
cissus), we fall in love with our own beauty and
why those who have drawn closest to God are
also the most suscep�ble to the sin of pride.
A�er all, what is more beau�ful, more de-
ligh�ul to behold a�er God than the work of
God ithat is the human person?
It is also here that we find the theological jus�-
fica�on for empirical research. While quan�ta-
�ve research cannot as such tell us how to live,
it certainly can tell us how we do live. From
whatever the source of findings, researchers
who understand the human person as a crea-
ture called to share in the life of God can play a
valuable role in helping believers and non-be-
lievers alike understand the impediments to
freedom and the possible steps to overcoming
these obstacles.
34
An Enduring Theological Vision
Bernard’s defense of human reason and his
concern for the self does not, and this is our
last point, jus�fy a purely secular or reduc�oni-
s�c approach to our psychological life. The ab-
bot Clairvaux is no “prac�cal atheist” who
would have us live our lives “as if” God did not
exist.
Apart from the twin vessels of crea�on and re-
demp�on, of the self-given and restored, love
remains if not impossible then deeply wounde-
d: ...the heart, tempted by many decei�ul
charms, wearies itself to no purpose, is always
craving, and counts for nothing what it has en-
joyed, compared to what it fain would have;
and is tormented, by desire of what it has not,
out of all delight with what it possesses. All one
cannot have; for the li�le it is possible to get,
the price of labour must be paid; and it must be
enjoyed with trembling; nay, with the misera-
ble certainty that one day it must be lost,
though the date of that day be not known (p.
28).
Here psychology and the other social and hu-
man sciences must hear a harsh word spoken
against them.
For all the good they do, separated ideological-
ly or even methodologically from crea�on and
redemp�on, of an awareness that the self is gi-
ven and restored, they are the cause of misery.
Or by encouraging us to labor for bread that
does not, and cannot, sa�sfy, they perpetuate
the misery of sin by offering a false self and not
the self known and loved by God.
Conclusion: A Foretaste of the Kingdom Of God
Though he doesn’t quote from the text, we can
I think fairly summarise Benard’s teaching in On
Loving God, with Job’s words and example:
Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his
head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped.
And he said:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
And naked shall I return there.
The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away;
Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:20-21,
NKJV)