ON USING GOD

 

One of my favorite books is "Joie de Croire, joie de vivre" by Jesuit Francois Varillon. It was being read at supper in a monastery I was visiting in 1986, and I immediately went out and bought a copy. It has since been translated into English (look for a used copy). This past week I returned to it in search of some ideas about the Sermon on the Mount, and in the course of flipping through its pages I came across a section with the provocative title "Using God." Below I offer my translation of some excerpts with the hope that they may be of some help to you as well. A warning: Fr. Varillon's writings are often intended to challenge our normal ways of thinking about God, Christanity and our relationship with Jesus. 

There is a parallel between caricatures of God and caricatures of prayer [mentioned in a previous sentence], and it is quite evident that in our modern Christian groups, there are still many remnants of paganism.

One of the most glaring but most subtle caricatures of God is that of the Supreme Magician, God considered as useful for the satisfaction of our needs, the Almighty on whom we call when we're forced to admit that we are helpless. Prayer is thus useful prayer addressed to a God whom we consider useful, ... the supplier of our needs. 

If we want to be authentically Christian, we have to come to believe that God is completely useless. It's only by starting with a God whom we don't need that we can arrive at an adoration that is completely disinterested (gratuite). Love is disinterested or it's not love. Anything of "usefulness" that we introduce into love leads to the death of love and thus to the death of Christianity.

... Praying is not about "needing" or "not needing," but about coming to an ever clearer realization that it is possible to desire someone for himself or herself, to love him or her, to the exact extent that we do not need them. ... Prayer reveals that it is possible for humans to desire the impossible. Need can be satisfied, but desire never is. To desire the other for himself or herself (which is the very definition of love) is to begin a process which can only deepen desire even more. ...

So, we have to drop this caricature-God who is the Universal Repairman that we call in when we've reached our limit. 

There is more, but this seems enough to provoke some thought. In "The Little Prince," Antoine de Saint-Exupery has the flower tell the prince that friends are meant to be useful to each other.  Which proves Varillon's point: prayer is not based on friendship with God, but on love, which is infinitely deeper and more meaningful, calling for vulnerability and self-giving. 

I should note that Varillon goes on to show why true gospel-based prayer is "absolutely necessary." In the above quotations he is simply warning us away from some common misconceptions of God and of prayer.

My favorite sentence above is "It's only by starting with a God whom we don't need that we can arrive at an adoration that is completely disinterested (gratuite)."  

Think about your relationship with someone you truly love and you'll see that Varillon is on to something here about the beloved being "needed" or not.

Have a blessed Lent!