Our Relationship with God was never meant to be Anonymous

In the ever-developing apparatus of the social media platform, the intention was to bring attention to the message conveyed. The dynamic of all things social media is to remove any sense of anonymity. The irony of this intention is that it has produced, I argue, the opposite effect: anonymity in which anyone can convey an opinion, right or wrong, and hide behind their social media platform. In a sense, the opportunity to have genuine human engagement with one another has been thwarted. I believe this is not what God intended when he made us in his image and likeness.

When human beings engage one another, it generally involves an exchange of thoughts, ideas, and opinions between two people who share a distinctive characteristic. All of us are created in the image and likeness of God. We are given a dual imprint that consists of a body and a soul. The duality of our identity reflects the love of God in how he made us to have a desire to be in a relationship with him. The Catechism echoes this point, reminding us that the desire for God is written in our human hearts.[1] This is a very important message conveyed by the Church because it means that our Lord never stops engaging man in forging a loving relationship with him. From the onset of human creation, there is a distinctive character given to man by God to know, love, and serve God.

It is fair to claim, I argue, that we are called to be in communion with God. This means that God’s intention was not to be an anonymous figure with his children. On the contrary, God’s infinite nature dictates an unending desire to be with us and love us. Hence, at the moment of our creation, we are invited to be in relation with him. King David reminds us of this unique relationship with the following exhortation; your hands have made and fashioned me; give me understanding that I may learn your commandments.[2] The beauty of David’s words shed light on the communal and covenantal relationship between God and his children. We are not made to be anonymous with God.  

God, who creates and conserves all things by his Word, provides men with constant evidence of himself in created realities. And furthermore, wishing to open up the way to heavenly salvation, he manifested himself to our first parents from the very beginning.” He invited them to intimate communion with himself and clothed them with resplendent grace and justice.^[3]

From the moment of creation, God invited Adam and Eve to be with him in paradise for all eternity. Though the invitation was rejected as a result of Adam and Eve’s first sin, it was not destroyed. Anonymity was introduced as a result of the original sin, but it was not meant to define God’s loving relationship with humanity. The Son of Man came to destroy the anonymity introduced by our first parents by becoming one of us, assuming a human nature, and thus possessing both a human and divine nature. God is no longer anonymous amongst his people because of the Son of Man, Jesus Christ. Because Jesus was fully human in all things except sin, the Word made flesh, embraces our humanity and thus brings to life a visible living relationship between his Father and us. The entire Incarnational event demonstrates that God does not operate in anonymity. Every time one of his children strays, He reveals and demonstrates his presence through His Son. Again, Jesus removes any semblance of anonymity between God and us,

Christ’s whole earthly life—his words and deeds, his silences and sufferings, indeed his manner of being and speaking—is Revelation of the Father. Jesus can say: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father,” and the Father can say: “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” Because our Lord became man in order to do his Father’s will, even the least characteristics of his mysteries manifest “God’s love … among us.^[4]

The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium Et Spes, reaffirms our identity with the Father through the Incarnation, where only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a figure of Him Who was to come, namely Christ the Lord. Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear. It is not surprising, then, that in Him all the aforementioned truths find their root and attain their crown.[5]

The Christian man, conformed to the likeness of that Son Who is the firstborn of many brothers, received "the first-fruits of the Spirit" (Rom. 8:23) by which he becomes capable of discharging the new law of love. Through this Spirit, who is "the pledge of our inheritance" (Eph. 1:14), the whole man is renewed from within, even to the achievement of "the redemption of the body" (Rom. 8:23): "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the death dwells in you, then he who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also bring to life your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who dwells in you" (Rom. 8:11). Pressing upon the Christian to be sure, are the need and the duty to battle against evil through manifold tribulations and even to suffer death. But, linked with the paschal mystery and patterned on the dying Christ, he will hasten forward to resurrection in the strength which comes from hope.[6]

Developing anonymity with God is a real human act, one that causes us to seek and believe in something other than God. When there is no faith or hope in God the Father, God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit, then anonymity becomes our God, which, I argue, leads to a loss of belief and denial of God and his love, a change in identity both spiritual and physical, and worse, a hatred towards God. Hence, our relationship with God is not unknown; it was meant to be known. What Adam lost, Jesus reclaimed through his life, death, and resurrection, removing all anonymity.

God wills that our desire should be exercised in prayer, that we may be able to receive what he is prepared to give.[7]

St. Augustine