The Gift of Self
The Gift of Self
“Man cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself.”
– Gaudium Et Spes Paragraph 24
Before I go much further into this, I want to take a second to stop and look at the deeper context of this short, but important quotation. This quote comes from the Second Vatican Council’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. At the time of its writing the Church found itself in a rapidly changing world. Since the last Ecumenical Council (the First Vatican Council) there had been two world wars, a near end to colonialism and imperialism, mass migration in unprecedented scales and the rise of mass media. All of this left the 2000-year-old institution in a new and unfamiliar landscape. What was the Church’s purpose in this new world? Did the Church even have a role in this new world?
Unlike other documents of the Church this was the first document which the Church had written that was not addressed to the members of her body, but to the larger world. The Church had to address its larger role, and this quote serves as the foundation. Taking the quote in the larger context of the document, the Council Fathers were addressing Jesus’ response to the question of which commandment is the greatest. The greatest commandment is to love God and the second is like it: to love one’s neighbor as oneself. Jesus tells us that to love is what is at the heart of the law and the prophets and that the ultimate act of love is to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. The Church understood that as the inheritors of Christ’s mission and message, it is her responsibility to teach the world how to love.
So, what does this have to do with the gift of self? Man, who is made in the image of the Trinitarian God, is the only creature God willed for its own sake. God had made the rest of creation for specific purposes. Genesis explains how he made the sun, the moon and the stars fill the void of the heavens. Birds fill the sky; animals fill the earth; sea creatures fill the sea. Plants and vegetation were made to provide homes for the various animals. Human persons find themselves in Genesis as being created after God’s own likeness. We are made in the likeness of a communion of persons, an eternal exchange of love. We were made by love itself.
We were also made for love. When the Second Person of the Trinity became flesh, He came so that we might have a perfect model of what it means to be a human person. He revealed that love of God and love of one’s neighbor is the purpose of human life. Ultimately this love leads to man finding himself when he gives of himself completely and total. If we are seeking to know who we are we must know that we are made to give of ourselves. We are made to give ourselves totally to God and totally to others. The lie of the modern world is that we should be focused on ourselves above others. Be a gift. It is what you were made for.
