Knowledge of who we are gives us a clearer awareness of who God is for us; thus we will be able to see ourselves as an accumulation of gifts freely received from Him. We will see that what typifies God is ‘giving’. This knowledge made Claret live in total trust and filial dependency on the Father, available for what the Father wanted from him. And for Claret, this attitude has nothing servile about it but is rather the source of joy and a successful life.
Deepening our knowledge illuminates the reality of God for us; and walking in the knowledge of God helps us to know more deeply who we are. This double knowledge is like the first stone of our own building. It is taking greater awareness of our deepest truth. To experience ourselves in this way, as creatures loved by the Creator, is a gift for which we must long and ask for.
Discovering, through experience and not just theoretically, that we are creatures reveals to us that we do not support our own existence but that we have received and constantly receive it. We are not the origin of ourselves but there is a fundamental and founding being, original and originating, from whom we receive being. It is He who gives us consistency.
But recognising this primordial and originating source also reveals that our existence is a humanisation project: the more human we are, the more divine. The incarnation of the Son, the perfect man, enlightens still further this project. This is the great reality of being the image and likeness of God. We are ‘more human’ beings the more the Spirit of Jesus inhabits us. The force of the spirit humanises, and humanising ourselves is the great task.
To what measure do I know myself, my possibilities, my limits…?