A World Drips With Desire

Photo by Mikel Parera on Unsplash

I have picked up Romano Guardini’s The Living God after setting it aside to tend to research-related reading. It is one of those short and deceptively simple reads that, as Romano Guardini is wont to be, clearly brings across incredibly profound ideas on a matter of abiding interest, that of divine providence.

In one chapter, Guardini reminded me of the fact that the Lord is one who sees all. This is in contrast to my irrational yet stubbornly constant suspicion that there are things and concerns (usually mine), that pale in comparison to the sufferings of others (we do not need to look to far to see the truth of this); because my own concerns are mere “first world problems”, they do not merit God’s attention, let alone his concern.

Against this ongoing tendency, Guardini’s work provides me with a short and sharp reminder. He sees all, including those things that I think do not merit his attention. Guardini goes one step further, however.

Guardini reminds me that the Lord not only sees from an indifferent distance, an archimedean standpoint, as if the Lord were just a stationary watchtower. The scriptures remind me constantly in my morning prayers - which I pray and just as quickly forget - that the Lord looks down from heaven and stoops down. In Guardini’s words

…there is a seeing mind behind everything that happens and that I am the object of its seeing. It means that provision is being made of what is good for me. It means that there are eyes in the world that see everything, from which nothing is hidden that may injure or benefit me. It means that not a hair of my head shall fall without being noticed and assessed with regard to my welfare and salvation. It means that there is a significance in everything that happens in the world, and there is a heart, a concern, and a power stronger than all the powers of the world, which is able to fulfill the purpose of its care for man (26).

I am reminded that He does so because he is not only a deposit of wisdom, but also a divine will, and the will is never stationary and never indifferent. This is because desire is always caught up in the operations of the will, and desire is never stationary or indifferent. Desire always directs the one desiring towards the object of that desire, causing the one desiring to move and act towards the object of desire. To have a will, therefore, means to move and to be moved, and God’s divine will means that God is always on the move, ready to not only see, but to act.

In a similar vein, Guardini reminded me that the Lord’s seeing is not from a position of indifference, but from a stance of desire, or more specifically, out of a stance of love. As David L. Schindler said at the beginning of Ordering Love, it was out of divine love that moved God to create the cosmos and everything living in it. Thus when He looks upon that which is made out of love, he looks at his creation from a standpoint of love. This love is not neutral, nor is it static. It is a love that moves the Lord towards His creatures, not in a general way, but in a way where He regards each and every one as if it was the only one to regard. Not even a single hair is too insignificant for this love.

The world thus exists out of a boundless wellspring of divine love, specifically oriented to each and every creature. This is why, as I mentioned in a previous post, every person who lives in the cosmos, whether they are aware of it or not, lives with that deep well of desire that mirrors that divine love.

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