When it comes to society, you are known by your family which you belong to because one’s life is a relationship or relationships. This is so because naturally you tend to associate with others and build relations with them; or else you would become entombed in your own shell as an isolated individual that cannot be broken into by others, or be open to others. It is well known that if you long for another person, that other person would become part of your world. Thus you become one with him. Life is a belonging, but not to your father and mother; it is a belonging to those whom Grace brings in to you.
And if you get into a relationship with another person, you will not be really one because each of you lacks something. And he who is lacking cannot complete the other who also is lacking. God, who is said to be complete in himself, has made Himself in a relationship with others through the incarnation of the Son; thus establishing a reciprocal relationship between Him and Man. Your identity is that link between you and God; and I think that the word identity – “hawiyya” in Arabic – is derived from the word “houwa” indicating the third person. Thus you know who you are through the Sole Other who is God. You acquire an identity when He knows you, as such you will be “from Him” and formed by Him.
In the absolute, Man is because God loves him. All else that has been said concerning Man’s being is of this world. Your identity card is to distinguish between you and citizens of other countries. But you do not come from the mountains and sea of a piece of land even though you might have acquired the prevailing temperaments in the culture of that land. But all this is relative in the sense that you belong to this humanity which everybody else belongs to with all what they have of “createdness”.
But when you realize that you are one loved by God, you become one with those you love because they do not receive that love from flesh and blood and what is created. As such the reality of the love they receive making them who they are, has descended on them from above.
What I said above is based on the Scriptures. God tells Moses on Mount Sinai: “…….for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.” (EX 33: 17) So his name that was known by God was his identity. And when Moses wanted to see God’s glory meaning to know God’s essence, God said:”But my face you cannot see.” Thus God did not reveal His name to Moses; but He said:”… I will take you as My people, and I will be your God.” (Ex 7:6). As such God reveals Himself through the moves He makes towards His people. In the desert of Sinai, God does not reveal His identity as one Who is self-existent, but in how He sees the People and relates to them.
This supports the scene of the burning bush when Moses told God: –“Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM….” (Ex 3:13,14) This is not a name in the literal sense of the word. This is an act. God introduces Himself as one who does acts of mercy towards His people.
Afterwards, God tells Jeremiah: “I will be their God and they will be my people”. (Jer 7: 23). And those words are repeated by him and by other prophets. And St. Peter explains in his first epistle that the people are those that receive mercy (1Peter 2: 10). A people, then, is not an ethnic group or social grouping. It is that community which God has chosen for Himself and they have accepted to obey Him so that He will be God to them and they would belong to Him. So when we say “the people of God, we mean to say that God is the subject doing the action; that is it is He who makes a human group become a divine people, that is a kingdom of priests according to the Old Testament and a royal priesthood according to the New Testament. God and Man are in motion, one towards the other.
When you are a believer, God will bestow on you an identity. Even if you were of little faith, He gives you your identity because He loves you though He knows that you will not respond to Him. The Father has made you his son; and that is your identity. You have been named such since eternity. And that identity has fulfilled itself in you when God created you in His image and likeness. Through the Sonship of Christ to God (which He gives us), the Lord elevates you from the state of limited “createdness” to that of unlimited “createdness” which is moved by the Spirit.
Thus the “houwa” (the third person) makes you the “ana” (‘I’ in Arabic) that is what you are; and when He(God) becomes related to you, you become related to Him and you live His life; all other relations and identities are of this world and are limited in themselves; that is why Amin Maalouf gave his book the title “Al Hawiyyat al Qatila” (The Identities that Destroy); it is because he has realized the destruction that can result from the limitation of “identities” like one being from a certain village, or belonging to a certain confession or other qualities. The aforementioned, when considered each by itself, he thinks, can destroy. But when good things come together they can produce a refined and civilized humane human being. At its best, what is good remains something given by God. And it is common that we use the good in us in clubs, or charity institutes which are not necessarily from God who moves towards us with His love and implants in us the love that moves us towards Him and towards those who love Him.
At that we see the limitation of nations and families whether in bringing people close to each other or in making them distant from each other. All what there is in this world has ups and downs; and all that is in it is in transit either from glory to shame or vice versa. But both the glory and shame of this world remain delusory until you receive your inner being from the One who beholds it; and you are bestowed a name from Him, a name of your righteousness. But here in this world, you might have no name except that which is imposed on you through some social genre.
When Divine Love weaves our identity for us, then we would not make distinctions among others because Love creates them through itself. You can distinguish between them, but Love which enfolds them all, makes them all children of God whether they believe in that Sonship or not.
The Lord might chastise or coddle a person yet we do not comprehend how the Lord will reward him. God always forgives and grants mercy so that we are found before Him in great brightness which is a reflection of His brightness.
Our purity is a legacy from the Lord. Such purity that descends from above is
What fashions one’s identity.
When it comes to society, you are known by your family which you belong to because one’s life is a relationship or relationships. This is so because naturally you tend to associate with others and build relations with them; or else you would become entombed in your own shell as an isolated individual that cannot be broken into by others, or be open to others. It is well known that if you long for another person, that other person would become part of your world. Thus you become one with him. Life is a belonging, but not to your father and mother; it is a belonging to those whom Grace brings in to you.
And if you get into a relationship with another person, you will not be really one because each of you lacks something. And he who is lacking cannot complete the other who also is lacking. God, who is said to be complete in himself, has made Himself in a relationship with others through the incarnation of the Son; thus establishing a reciprocal relationship between Him and Man. Your identity is that link between you and God; and I think that the word identity – “hawiyya” in Arabic – is derived from the word “houwa” indicating the third person. Thus you know who you are through the Sole Other who is God. You acquire an identity when He knows you, as such you will be “from Him” and formed by Him.
In the absolute, Man is because God loves him. All else that has been said concerning Man’s being is of this world. Your identity card is to distinguish between you and citizens of other countries. But you do not come from the mountains and sea of a piece of land even though you might have acquired the prevailing temperaments in the culture of that land. But all this is relative in the sense that you belong to this humanity which everybody else belongs to with all what they have of “createdness”.
But when you realize that you are one loved by God, you become one with those you love because they do not receive that love from flesh and blood and what is created. As such the reality of the love they receive making them who they are, has descended on them from above.
What I said above is based on the Scriptures. God tells Moses on Mount Sinai: “…….for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.” (EX 33: 17) So his name that was known by God was his identity. And when Moses wanted to see God’s glory meaning to know God’s essence, God said:”But my face you cannot see.” Thus God did not reveal His name to Moses; but He said:”… I will take you as My people, and I will be your God.” (Ex 7:6). As such God reveals Himself through the moves He makes towards His people. In the desert of Sinai, God does not reveal His identity as one Who is self-existent, but in how He sees the People and relates to them.
This supports the scene of the burning bush when Moses told God: –“Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM….” (Ex 3:13,14) This is not a name in the literal sense of the word. This is an act. God introduces Himself as one who does acts of mercy towards His people.
Afterwards, God tells Jeremiah: “I will be their God and they will be my people”. (Jer 7: 23). And those words are repeated by him and by other prophets. And St. Peter explains in his first epistle that the people are those that receive mercy (1Peter 2: 10). A people, then, is not an ethnic group or social grouping. It is that community which God has chosen for Himself and they have accepted to obey Him so that He will be God to them and they would belong to Him. So when we say “the people of God, we mean to say that God is the subject doing the action; that is it is He who makes a human group become a divine people, that is a kingdom of priests according to the Old Testament and a royal priesthood according to the New Testament. God and Man are in motion, one towards the other.
When you are a believer, God will bestow on you an identity. Even if you were of little faith, He gives you your identity because He loves you though He knows that you will not respond to Him. The Father has made you his son; and that is your identity. You have been named such since eternity. And that identity has fulfilled itself in you when God created you in His image and likeness. Through the Sonship of Christ to God (which He gives us), the Lord elevates you from the state of limited “createdness” to that of unlimited “createdness” which is moved by the Spirit.
Thus the “houwa” (the third person) makes you the “ana” (‘I’ in Arabic) that is what you are; and when He(God) becomes related to you, you become related to Him and you live His life; all other relations and identities are of this world and are limited in themselves; that is why Amin Maalouf gave his book the title “Al Hawiyyat al Qatila” (The Identities that Destroy); it is because he has realized the destruction that can result from the limitation of “identities” like one being from a certain village, or belonging to a certain confession or other qualities. The aforementioned, when considered each by itself, he thinks, can destroy. But when good things come together they can produce a refined and civilized humane human being. At its best, what is good remains something given by God. And it is common that we use the good in us in clubs, or charity institutes which are not necessarily from God who moves towards us with His love and implants in us the love that moves us towards Him and towards those who love Him.
At that we see the limitation of nations and families whether in bringing people close to each other or in making them distant from each other. All what there is in this world has ups and downs; and all that is in it is in transit either from glory to shame or vice versa. But both the glory and shame of this world remain delusory until you receive your inner being from the One who beholds it; and you are bestowed a name from Him, a name of your righteousness. But here in this world, you might have no name except that which is imposed on you through some social genre.
When Divine Love weaves our identity for us, then we would not make distinctions among others because Love creates them through itself. You can distinguish between them, but Love which enfolds them all, makes them all children of God whether they believe in that Sonship or not.
The Lord might chastise or coddle a person yet we do not comprehend how the Lord will reward him. God always forgives and grants mercy so that we are found before Him in great brightness which is a reflection of His brightness.
Our purity is a legacy from the Lord. Such purity that descends from above is
What fashions one’s identity.
Translated by Riad Moufarrij
Original Text: “الهوية” –An Nahar- 17.07.2010
