Sunday I of Lent
February 22
Mt 4, 1-11
Human existence begins as a pure need. More than other mammals, it takes a baby human time to start moving on their own. Therefore, when we perceive ourselves as so needy, we form an image of ourselves as beings lacking and we feel compelled to alleviate this lack by clinging to anything – having, power, appearing, doing… – that can give us a feeling – certain or not – of security.
What happens is that, while we read each other in this key, we will inevitably find ourselves trapped in a vicious circle made of voracity and dissatisfaction. *Wanting to catch everything, we will experience that the emptiness does not cease*. Not only that; we will end up recognizing that we will never find anything that can completely satisfy us.
This is because, in itself, our character – what we call “I” – is empty. Consequently, even without realizing it, it is utterly impossible for it to experience fullness. And it can spend its existence pursuing objects of all kinds, while carrying the frustration of always lacking something. When reading in a key of lack, our gaze will automatically be focused on everything that we lack.
The database error lies in the reading key itself, which has locked us into a half-truth. It is undeniable that, in our personal form, we are beings in need. However, that form does not exhaust our truth nor constitute our identity. To the extent that we delve into self-knowledge, we understand ourselves as wholeness experiencing itself as lack. That is our paradox. When we understand it, everything changes. And it changes our reading key completely: in what we are, we lack nothing.
Enrique Martínez Lozano
(Weekly bulletin)
English version translated with AI