(Ir)religiosity

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What do I love when I love my God?

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That is the all important question that Augustine occupies himself with in his Confessions.  Augustine is never really satisfied with any of his answers because those answers, for him, amount to nothing more the a visual image of an invisible God and ultimately fail to grasp God as God.

I think Augustine’s question has to become our question, a question that must always be lived out within our experience as the all important linchpin of all our theological discourse and reflection.  It is the question of religion.

What would your answer be?  What is it that you love when you love your God?

I could answer with many of virtues that we find so important in theology.  But each one seems to fall short.  What is that I love when I love my God?  Is it love itself?  Justice?  Hope?  Wisdom?  All these are legitimate answers, but each one seems to, when I name it, place restraints and limits on God as God.  Perhaps the best response is all these answers and more.  The more I contemplate possible answers the more I realize that I am wholly inadequate to formulate an answer.

Any answer to this question is provisional, and always arises ad hoc in wake of the event of God.  So my answer today will likely differ from my answer tomorrow just as it differs from my answer yesterday.  And the true paradox is that none of those answers — past, present, or future — is necessarily wrong, as it were.

So again, what do I love when I love my God? I will answer for today.

I am becoming more and more convinced that God is not an object to be contemplated or an external idea to be reflected upon but a reality to be participated in and a life in which we all share.

If that is true then perhaps the best way I can answer this all important question is to say that when I love my God I love you — yes, you.  Whoever you are, however you are, whenever you are and whatever you are doing…I. Love. You.  If you are reading this, if you are a human being and participate in the sharing of this life, then I…love…you.  That is what I love when I love my God.

How would you answer?  What is it that you love when you love your God?

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Written by Blake Huggins

February 20th, 2009 at 7:30 am

Posted in Uncategorized

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  • wmbooth
    I LOVE A GOD WHO FIRST LOVED ME, UNCONDITIONALLY, WHO SENT HIS SON TO DIE FOR ME, SO THAT I MAY LIVE WITH HIM FOREVER IN HEAVEN......HOW COULD I NOT LOVE MY GOD?
  • Terry
    What do I love when I love my God? I love the fact that He is what I am not and what I can never truly be apart from Him. I love the fact that He can love when I normally give up. I love the fact that Christ had the ear of a disciple and was not disobedient when I stumble daily. I love that He is all knowing when I am short on answers. I love that He is patient when I grow frustrated. I love that He is God and that eternity will not be enough to digest all that He is.
  • Danny
    I would challenge you on your statement that "if you are a human being...I love you." God is not just a life or reality that we [humans] all share. Indeed, God is the author of all of creation and has claimed "It is good!" There the ultimate Reality or Truth that we understand God to be is also shared in everything that has been born from or created from that love. Hence, it is not enough to say that you love God by loving other humans. When one loves God, there must be an inherent love of and care for ALL creation: animals, the earth, the evironment...
  • Hi Danny. Thanks for stopping by and joining the conversation.

    My answer is definitely anthropocentric. Now that I reread it having let it set for a while I see that even more so.

    So I see your criticism. While I would not take away from what I said, your point about the entire cosmos is something I could definitely add to build upon what is already there.

    A more general point. I think this just goes to show that any answer, however broad or narrow, will never fully satisfy the question because will always be beyond our answers, always beyond our language, and, in some sense, always beyond our conception. That's what I was hinting at when I said all our answers are provisional; because we always experience God in an excess of presence.
  • What do we love? I am not certain it is a what. For me love is pure relationship. Just like the Trinity, a selfless, all giving, unconditional love. Agape would be the best way to describe it. True love is not caught up in the what but it is all about the why. We can do the right things for the wrong reasons. We can give to the poor to be seen. We can preach the Good News to acheive recognition and prestige.
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