Thursday, April 30, 2009

[Re]visiting

I've been re-reading some of Jack Caputo's stuff and come across this which I felt was relevant:

"When a stranger is lost in darkness, God makes his face to shine upon the face of the stranger; when the stranger is endangered by the desert heat, God leads him into the shelter and shade of his loving care. The self is already turned to God, who has in turn turned the self to the stranger, deflected it in a certain way, ordered and commanded the self to the stranger, who bears God's trace and seal. Being turned to the other means a devotion to God that responds without desire for reciprocity, in a love without eros, in a relation without correlation and reciprocity, like the non-reciprocity, the interruption of the symmetry and commensurability that constitutes the gift, or death itself. A-Dieu, to-God, to-the-infinite,to-the-tout autre, who is a positive infinity, an infinite yes, an unlimited oui, an event. To respond to the event is to say yes to what seperates itself, to welcome and greet what seperates itself, whose departure is not different from its coming, and this "deference" is the breath of the a-Dieu."

What he says here reminds me that God has created, or is, an infinite yes. An ever influentially present yes to and in life. Life that encompasses humanity, creation and the cosmos. A yes to life that was manifested through Jesus. When we respond to the yes, then a relationship is transformed. And as Caputo suggests, one of the foundations for such a transformed relationship in non-reciprocity. We love God in a selfless, honest, way that comes to expect nothing back from that which we give to. But in turn, as God loves us even more, he gives - not in return nor reciprocity - to us. Just as he gave us redemption, we have to realize it's present yes and accept it - the gift. I wonder how many people don't not think about spirituality, their relationship, to God reciprocally?

jimmy

P.S. I think this has something to say about a doctrine of prosperity as well. E.g. Creflo Dollar; be debt free and God will bless you - is this not a relationship based on reciprocity? Does it undermine love? How can we come to expect prosperity from God? Perhaps this is something I will look into.