Reflection on January 16, 1980

https://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/jp2tb14.htm

The world we live in today is a selfish world. There is a need to satisfy our urges and fulfill our every desire at whatever cost to others and even ourselves. JPII has focused on the idea that we are, at our essence, a gift. We cannot understand what it means to be human without understanding that we were meant to be a gift. Our lives are only fulfilled when we give ourselves. It is no wonder that the world becomes a darker and darker place the more inwardly we turn. We are moving farther away from what we are at in are very foundation. Selfishness, if we understand that we are a gift at our very essence, is the complete opposite of what it means to be human. But, I think you could say, Selfishness is exactly what the world is telling us we need to be normal.

This idea of selfishness goes along with the idea of self-mastery (self-dominion). What I take from it is that we are to be a gift, but a whole and total gift, a gift that holds nothing back. It is hard not to think of this and not reflect on the example of Christ, the greatest example of a full and total gift of self. You must have self-mastery if you want to be able to give yourself fully, because if are not in full control of yourself, you can only give a partial gift. If you ever watched Seinfeld, they have a famous episode about being “master of your domain”. It really ties in well, though I am sure not by any intention on their part, with this idea of self-mastery and gift. Their question to each other, “are you master of your domain”, is one that we should reflect on as we think about the relationship between spouses and a full gift of self.

JPII talks about the two aspects at the essence of being human: The idea that we are gift and that humans were willed “for its own sake”. There appears to be a contradiction there. On one hand we are to give ourselves, on the other we are for ourselves. But JPII focuses this “for its own sake” on the idea of acceptance of the gift. Adam accepted Eve’s gift as she was made, for her own sake, and she accepted him. They did not want to change the other or desire anything in the person to be different but understood that they were made by God for their own sake and that is what they were to accept. The idea that we are gift is only half the equation because you cannot have a gift with no recipient. In order to understand our essence as a gift, we must also understand acceptance of the gift as God intended, that is fully and totally. If we cannot talk about gift without thinking of Christ, it is hard to think about acceptance without thinking of all those that choose to accept parts of Christ teachings, but not all.

To wrap this up, think of what is meant by humans being made in image of God. That is the humans (male and female united) as the image of God. That, before the fall, was an untainted male and female, being both a full and total gift and fully accepting of the other as they were. Then we have the fall, which destroys the ability to give totally and to accept totally. Christ comes to redeem and reunite that break and does so by being a total gift and we join in bridging that gap by accepting His gift in its fullness, thus, reaching back to what we had “in the beginning”.