The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and thou in me...

[From Hans Urs von Balthasar's "Does Jesus Know Us?--Do We Know Him?", pp. 52-57:]

But there is more. The New and Eternal Covenant perfects the relationship of marital love between God and man in such a way that Jesus Christ becomes the middle term between two relationships of immanence: "That they may be one even as we are one," Jesus prays to the Father, "I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one" (jn 17:22f). Now the ultimate inner mystery of the godhead, the mutual indwelling of the divine hypostasis (an indwelling in which knowledge and love are no longer distinguishable), is revealed in the mutual unity of Jesus and men. From now on this divine unity--far beyond the mere Creator-creature relationship we find in the Psalms--will be the measure of and the ontological basis for the loving mutuality of knowing and being known.

"I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father" (jn 10:14f). No longer are the knowledge of those who are his two separate things; they constitute a single life-process, like an ellipse with two foci and a single orbit around them. This cannot be made intelligible in the subject-object schema. Here we have two subjects reflected in each other, yet they are not two equal subjects. The subject which enfolds the other lives within the absolute mutual reflection of Son and Father in the Holy Spirit, and hence is able to provide the basis of an intimacy undreamed of anywhere else in the world.

This gift of the capacity for mutual indwelling is perfected in the Son's eucharistic self-suurender to those who are his: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As... I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me" (jn 6:5ff). John continually refers to this reciprocal immanence (jn 14:10f, 20; i Jn 3:24; 4:13, 15, 16). It is noteworthy that in these formulations "is" is replaced by "abides": the reciprocity of loving knowledge is final, as the reciprocity of a shared gaze which needs no mediations. Augustine's expression is unsurpassable: Videntem videre.

In the light of this mutual indwelling, as we have said, "objectivity" disappears. We behold God--now in faith and one day in glory--not as an object; rather, as the theologians say, the light of God's glory is always in us and imparts to our eyes a supernatural brightness: "In thy light do we see light" (ps 36:9).

The eternal heresy of gnosticism is to try to make God into a knowable object which could be dissected by a human reason that is under the illusion of being absolute. If God becomes an object of my reason, he is no longer primarily the eye which sees me and in whose light I behold his light. Then it is I who proffer my own light to him, however much I may endeavor to extend my finite mode of knowledge toward the absolute and to disappear as a person.

No: God is the one who knows me. There is truth in Franz von Baader's formula: "cogitor (cognoscor), ergo sum": I am, becuase God knows me. Paul continually found new and luminous formulations for this fundamental relationship: "'Knowledge' [gnosis] puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if one knows God, one is known by him" (1 Cor 8:1ff).

It is precisely gnosis, imagining that it rules the realm of knowledge and erecting gigantic logical and dialectical systems of the absolute, that is artificially "inflated". Everything begins with the love of God: this is what gives rise to the real knowledge which can fulfill man's yearning: the spousal knowledge God has of those who love him and that he necessarily shares with them.

"Not that I have already obtained this,... but I press on to make it my own" (Phil 3:12). Here we have the same reversal of terms, now applied to Christ. Being "made his own" is an anticipatory "being known"--as occurred with such force on the Damascus road--and to that extent the one who "is known" is already a "knower", in a single movement of life, having truly been "made Christ's own", he strives towards him who has made him such.

The fulfillment is described elsewhere: "Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood" (1 Cor 13:12). Here below it is not a matter of integrity of gnosis but integrity of love, which is elevated and praised by Paul above everything else; the fragmentary nature of our knowledge is a veritable spur of love, which races ahead to embrace him who already knows me--which means, in the case of God, that he affirms me and chooses me in love. Here Paul does not hesitate to equate man's ultimate knowledge of God with his own being known by God; in the sense of John's immanence-formulas, the unmediated indwelling of mutual, loving insight.

Finally, "Now you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God" (Gal 4:9). You have stepped out of the obscurity of purely worldly knowledge into the light of the knowledge of God; this you owe to being known already by God. And being known in turn means being loved and chosen, which alone can bring about the new knowledge of God.

Thus our knowledge of God is an act of creation on God's part. "For it is God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ" (2 Cor 4:6). This is the knowledge manifested to the Apostle on the road to Damascus; it did not manifest itself to him merely as an object but shone interiorly in the personal knowledge of his heart. The unity of knowing and being known cannot be expressed in a profounder or more intimate way.

In all this, however, there is not the slightest trace of pantheism. The nearness made possible by knowledge of God is always governed by the distance of creaturely reverence. Jesus' song of praise establishes this once and for all:

"I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth
that thou has hidden these things
from the wise and understanding
and revealed them to babes;
yes, Father, for such was thy gracious will....
No one knows the Father except the Son
and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal
him." (Mt 11:25-27)

The perfect mutual knowledge of Father and Son in the Holy Spirit (for Jesus sings this song of praise 'in the Spirit': Lk 10:21) is the measuring-rod for all knowledge of man by God and of God by man. But only the the simple believer is admitted into the circle of trinitarian knowledge. It is revealed to one whose eye is 'simple' (Lk 11:34), who knows himself to be in the position of a 'lowly handmaid' (lk 1:48); such a one receives the 'knowledge of God' meant by Hosea.

Reports from the field

Does everyone know about Maria Colonna? My fellow soldier-in-arms from the ITI is an avid and burgeoning theologian, and will be attending the Teresianum this fall. She has been a walking magnet for islands and oases, a participant of many lay efforts of evangelization over the years. She has clued me in to her newest association, the Lay Centre in Rome. If you're ever in Rome, look her up!! She's the best.