The Synergy of Two

"YOU"  A New Intimacy.

Christianity is a religion of the "I", but it quickly becomes the relationship of the you.  In fact, Christianity is best described as a first-person faith that puts the second person first.  Especially the last person.  In the Shema (Deu. 6:4-9)  "...Love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your strength.  The first part is addressed to the individual (heart) and the second part is in the plural and is addressed to the Hebrew people as a whole (Deu. 11:13-21).  This is the beginning of Jesus answer to the question as to which of the commandments was the greatest.  In Jesus own words "Love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself".  You must first Love as a singular person and then love in a plural sense, your community or neighbor.  In fact God told Adam in Genesis that it was not good for him to be alone, so he created Eve for him.  It has been said for many years that when "God put Adam to sleep and took Eve out of his side and when Adam woke up he found out he was married." That has been happening ever since to us men, one day we wake up and figure out we are married.  

Actress Jamie Lee Curtis in an interview with USA today stated,  "You can have everything under the tree that you ever wanted.  and if you're sitting there alone, you are the saddest, loneliest human being on the planet, and there is absolutely nothing that money can buy that will fill your soul."

None of us can go at it alone in today's world. The price for trying that is being left alone. It has been said that "New York was once a city where one could weep on the sidewalk in perfect privacy."

It's interesting how individualization works here in the West.  When every individual is born, you get some kind of document that proves you were born on such-and-such a date in such-and-such a place. This is called a birth certificate and is used to get a passport, drivers license and other such important documents that prove we are who we say we are.  In the East, when parents give birth to a child, that child's name is added onto the family of record.  While in the West, every child enters life legally defined as a separate entity.  In the East, every child enters life legally defined by the network of relationships into which one is born.  In some African cultures, a child does not achieve "moral" standing until he or she is "presented" to the community.  Until an infant is introduced into relationships with others, he or she has no "moral arrival,"  only a "biological arrival".  The African people have introduced us to probably the most important global spiritual truth, the Ubuntu principle of "I am because we are."  

One of the greatest spiritual heresies of our day is the notion that we are separate from one another - that I can function in this world without you, that I can cry "in perfect privacy."  The well known "Lords Prayer" begins with "Our Father."  The disciples never approached Jesus for a personal prayer, but a prayer that would teach "us" to pray.  They asked for the good of their brothers and sisters.  It has been said that in the Lord's Prayer the "I" is silent.

The Talmudic reading of the "rib" from which Eve was made is the word "face".   Adam had two faces.  The "I"(singular) becomes truly itself only in communion, in the "YOU" (community).   In the community, we see something  that reminds us of intimacy, and connection.  In human life as well as divine life, two is really one, and one is really two.  Love needs two.  When love is only one, there is something missing and homesickness happens.  God's original intent for Adam and Eve was that, "they become one" but it takes two to do that.  We are in need of each other and were not created to go it alone.  We need each other.

I need to stop writing and go hug my wife, I'll talk to you later.

Bob