Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: A Second Collection

Titel: A Second Collection

Stichwort: In-Liebe-Sein als ein erstes Prinzip; Augustinus: unruhiges Herz

Kurzinhalt: That dynamic state, while it has its causes, conditions, occasions, none the less once it occurs and as long as it lasts, is a first principle in one's living. ... it removes the temptation of all that is shallow hollow, empty,

Textausschnitt: 145a Now there is a profound difference between particular acts of loving and the dynamic state to which we refer when we speak of falling in love and of being in love. That dynamic state, while it has its causes, conditions, occasions, none the less once it occurs and as long as it lasts, is a first principle in one's living. It is the origin and source that prompts and colors all one's thoughts and feelings, all one's hopes and fears, all one's joys and sorrows. Moreover, such being-in-love is of three kinds. There is being-in-love with the domestic community, with one's mate and one's children. There is being-in-love with the civil community, eagerly making one's contribution to its needs and promoting its betterment. There is being-in-love with God. Of this love St. Paul spoke when he wrote to the Romans: "The love of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Spirit of God who has been given to us" (Rom. 5: 5). To it he referred when he asked: "Then what can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or hardship? Can persecution, hunger, nakedness, peril, or the sword?" And his answer was: "For I am convinced that there is nothing in death or life, in the realm of spirits or superhuman powers, in the world as it is or the world as it shall be, in the forces of the universe, in heights or depths-nothing in all creation that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:35, 38, 39). (Fs)

145b All authentic being-in-love is a total self-surrender. But the love of God is not restricted to particular areas of human living. It is the foundation of love of one's neighbor. It is the grace that keeps one ever faithful and devoted to one's mate. But it is also something in itself, something personal, intimate, and profoundly attuned to the deepest yearnings of the human heart. It constitutes a basic fulfilment of man's being. Because it is such a fulfilment, it is the source of a great peace, the peace that the world cannot give. It is a wellspring of joy that can endure despite the sorrow of failure, humiliation, privation, pain, desertion. Because it is such, a fulfilment, it removes the temptation of all that is shallow hollow, empty, and degrading without handing man over to the fanaticism that arises when man's capacity for God is misdirected to finite goals. (Fs)

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146c Long ago St. Augustine exclaimed that God had made us for himself and that our hearts are restless till they rest in him. What that restlessness is, we see all about us in the mountainous discontents, hatreds, and terrors of the twentieth century. But what it is to rest in God is not easily known or readily understood. Though God's grace is given to all, still the experience of resting in God ordinarily needs a religious tradition for it to be encouraged, fostered, interpreted, guided, developed. Though grace bestows both good will and good performance, still one shrinks and draws back from the performance of denying oneself daily and taking up one's cross and following Christ. For the fulfilment that is the love of God is not the fulfilment of any appetite or desire or wish or dream impulse, but the fulfilment of getting beyond one's appetites and desires and wishes and impulses, the fulfilment of self-transcendence, the fulfilment of human authenticity, the fulfilment that overflows into a love of one's neighbor as oneself. (Fs)