We are made from nothing, and, in comparison to God, we remain nothing. We have made nothing entirely by ourselves, and nothing we do is done without our connection to God (and others). It is good for us to embrace this aspect of our nothingness, not because we have no value, no good, in us, but by doing so we can see ourselves as empty vessels ready to be filled with God’s grace. We are not closed in on ourselves, but rather, open to what lies beyond ourselves, knowing that what lies beyond us is what gives us our being and our existence. It is what gives us our goodness. And if we are given our being and existence from God, God can also help us become something more, something greater than what we were at our creation. Indeed, it is thanks to our inherent nothingness, we can grow, because there is nothing substantial in us which can get in the way of that growth. We possess no independent existence apart from God. All created things share in this nothingness; they all have God, and not themselves, as the source and foundation for their existence.
While our inherent nothingness, if not properly understood, could have us embrace a nihilistic engagement with the world, seeking to render everything back to their non-existent origin, it can also be engaged by us as a way to realize our open-ended nature; that is, we realize we are free to take on and accept more and more grace, with every grace helping us grow, and become something greater, a growth which can and will take place in eternity as eternal theosis. This is why Elizabeth Leseur could say, “Yes, let’s rejoice in being nothing since for us God is everything”.[1] God is our everything, God is all around us, providing us the source of our being, the place we dwell in or exist, as well as our final destination, as our eternal life will be a life in God. Embracing our nothingness, therefore, does not mean embracing what we were outside of God, outside of the existence which God gave to us, but rather, it is about embracing the creator, embracing God, who is everything, and will share everything to those who remain open to God’s gifts. In the end, we will not return to non-existence; rather, we will find our proper place in the kingdom of God, and, if we are open to it, to God’s grace, grace which will allow us to grow without limit. And, realizing there is no existence apart from God, we should be able to understand how God truly is all in all, a reality which we will discern in a way beyond speculation in our experience of the kingdom of God. Julian of Norwich, therefore, saw how important it is for us to recognize our nothingness in a positive, and not nihilistic, fashion, for we were created for a purpose, that is, to be united with God:
And so I understood that man’s soul is made of nothing, that is to say that is made of nothing that is made, in this way: When God was to make man’s body, he took the slime of the earth, which is matter mixed and gathered from all bodily things, and of that he made man’s body. But to the making of man’s soul he would accept nothing at all, but made it. And so is created nature rightfully united to the maker, who is substantial uncreated nature, that is God.[2]
We must not read Julian as suggesting that material creation, and with it, the body, exists in a way that is independent from God and God’s creation. Material creation and its “laws” were established by God at its creation. What is made in and through them exists thanks to God. What Julian suggests is that in our material formation, God adds our soul. Both our body and our soul, in their own way, reflect their conditioned existence, because neither of them come to be by their own selves; both are empty of inherent existence and yet open to participating in existence thanks to the One who possesses it and shares it with all. The more we reflect upon our conditioned, empty nature, the more we can see beyond ourselves and discern that One, that is, the One who is self-existent, the One who transcends conditioned being, and so, the One who alone is able to grant existence to all conditioned beings. This is one way for us to perceive God’s omnipresence, that is, how God is in all things and all things in God, even as it also demonstrates how all created things are nothing in comparison to God: “A man who sees the One is about, through the One, to see himself, all mean, and all reality, and being hidden in him, sees nothing of all things.”[3] That perception also is a gift given to us, something, that is, which is handed to us, one which ultimately comes from God. God’s gift, God’s grace, can even be said to light the way for us to use our spiritual senses, allowing us to see all things in relation to their truth in God, as Bede Griffiths understood:
God is the light which is reflected in the whole created universe. Creation is a reflection, as in a mirror, of the one light. It is reflect in the innumerable different forms of matter and of life. Every human being, each jivatman, is a particular reflection of the one divine light and each human consciousness mirrors that divine consciousness. [4]
Since we are nothing, in and of ourselves, but exist only in and through the existence of God, what is seen in us in the light of God is a reflection of God, which of course, is represented in Genesis by saying humanity is made in the image and likeness of God, for humanity is made in and reflects the light of God, the light of God which gives it being. It should also help us understand that this is true for all other things. Everything, in their own way, participates in God’s existence, reflects that existence, and serves as an image and likeness of God. And in this way, all things point to God, revealing something something of the truth of God to us, each in their own unique way.
[1] Elisabeth Leseur, “Letters on Suffering: Letter XXIV” in Elizabeth Leseur: Selected Writings. Trans. Janet K Ruffing, RSM (New York: Paulist Press, 2005), 251 [Letter to Sister Marie Goby, Feb 1912].
[2] Julian of Norwich, Showings. Trans. Edmund Colledge OSA and James Walsh SJ (New York: Paulist Press, 1978),284 [Long text].
[3] St Symeon the New Theologian, “The Practical and Theological Chapters” in Symeon the New Theologian: The Practical and Theological Chapters & The Three Theological Discourses. Trans. Paul McGuckin OP (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications. 1982), 46 [1.52].
[4] Bede Griffiths, River of Compassion (Warwick, NY: Amity House, 1987), 17.
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