Fullness and Emptiness
- by Brother David Steindl-Rast

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Whenever we speak of the heart, we mean the whole person.  Only at heart are we whole.  The heart stands for that center of our being where we are one with ourselves, one with all others, one with God.  The heart is ever restless in its quest for God, and yet, deep down, it is ever at home in God.  To live from the heart means to live out of the fullness of this longing and belonging.  And that means to live fully.

There is a close connection between hope and hopes, but we must not confuse the two.  We set our hopes on something we can imagine.  But hope is open for the unimaginable.  The opposite of hopes is hopelessness.  The opposite of hope is despair.  But even in a hopeless situation hope remains open to surprise.  Surprise links hope with gratefulness.  To the grateful heart every gift is surprising.  Hope is openness for surprise.

Today, humility is not a popular virtue, but only because it is misunderstood.  Many think that humility is a pious lie committed by people who claim to be worse than they know themselves to be, so that they can secretly pride themselves in being so humble.  In truth, however, to be humble means simply to be earthy.  The word “humble” is related to “humus,” the vegetable mold of top soil. It is also related to human and humor.  If we accept and embrace the earthiness of our human condition (and a bit of humor helps) we shall find ourselves doing so with humble pride.  In our best moments, humility is simply pride that is too grateful to look down on anyone.

It is no mere coincidence that the personal pronoun “I” in the English language cannot be distinguished by its sound from the word “eye” for the organ of sight.  This adds an additional layer of meaning to the English version of Meister Eckhardt’s saying, “The eye by which I see God is the very eye by which God sees me.”  When we understand our I in this sense, we give it its deepest meaning and escape from the prison of the individualistic little self.

It is necessary to distinguish clearly between individual and person.  We are individuals by being separate and distinct from others.  We become persons by relating to others.  Born as so many human individuals, we grow up to become human persons.  In order to accomplish this, we need others.  Individuals differ in the degree to which they have become persons because their relationships to others differ in complexity and intensity.  As our relationships to others unfold and change, they influence our relationship to God and self.  Overemphasis on individuality leads to alienation by denying our deep mutual interdependence.   As one becomes a person, individuality is at one and the same time enhanced and transcended.

Ordinary happiness depends on happenstance.  Joy is that extraordinary happiness that is independent of what happens to us.  Good luck can make us happy, but it cannot give us lasting joy.  The root of joy is gratefulness.  We tend to misunderstand the link between joy and gratefulness.  We notice that joyful people are grateful and suppose that they are grateful for their joy.  But the reverse is true:  their joy springs from gratefulness.  If one has all the good luck in the world, but takes it for granted, it will not give one joy.  Yet even bad luck will give joy to those who manage to be grateful for it.  We hold the key to lasting happiness in our own hands.  For it is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.

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From Brother David Steindl-Rast, Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer: An Approach to Life in Fullness (New York, Mahwah, New Jersey:  Paulist Press, 1984).