An infinite desire

Sunday January 29, 2023

An infinite desire

The Lord is near to those who call on him... He fulfills the desires of those who fear him, he hears their cry and he delivers them. Psalm 145.18-19

From the beginning there is in the heart of every man a deep desire for happiness, love, relationship... Blaise Pascal (Pascal (1623-1662), French mathematician, physicist, inventor and theologian.) even speaks of an “infinite abyss” : “There was once in man a real happiness, of which he now only remains the mark and the empty trace that he tries to fill uselessly with everything that surrounds him, seeking in absent things the help which he does not obtain in the present. Now, all of them are inadequate, because this infinite gulf can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, God himself."

Since the dawn of time, man has been running after anything that could quench this thirst for meaning, fulfillment, happiness, by wanting to acquire what are ultimately only counterfeits of what he really needs : wealth, power, sensuality and sex, entertainment... We are sociable beings and we cannot live without relationships with others. But as Pascal expresses it, the essential need of man is above all to be in relationship with God himself. He created us “in his image” to live in relationship with him. It is in his Son Jesus Christ that he wants to reconcile us with him and meet us.

Bernard Grebille

__________________

Proposed reading : Psalm 145, verses 8 to 21.

Source (Live Today)