We all need to communicate

THAT’S part of our nature. As individuals and persons, we are all meant to communicate to be able to attain communion among ourselves, with the world, and most especially with God, our Creator.

     

      Our individuality by definition refers us to a genus and a species, that is, our humanity, to which we belong and to which we need to knowingly and willingly keep on maintaining and building up. Our humanity is a dynamic affair, not static.

     

      In short, our being individuals means we belong to a certain grouping since in spite of our unique existence we all share the same human nature. We would not be individuals if we are not placed in the context of a certain group, known as the species “homo sapiens.”

     

      In other words, we may be individuals, but we are not meant to be alone. “No man is an island,” as they say. We are meant to enter into a web of relations. And so we need to make the necessary adjustments in our attitudes and understanding of ourselves, and acquire the relevant skills.

     

      We need to be more aware of this distinction about ourselves, since even in our supposedly advanced age of the sciences and knowledge, we still are ignorant, confused and often wrong about the relation between our individuality and our being members of a species, and the consequent responsibilities arising from that relation.

     

      Besides, aside from being individuals that need to be related to the species, we are persons that also need to be related to the source and engine of our personhood. And that can only be a Creator who, like us, must be spiritual in the sense of being able to know and love. These powers of knowing and loving precisely enable us to enter into relations.

     

      In fact, being Creator, he must be the fullness of knowing and loving. In fact, he knows and loves us first, before we get to know and love him. We simply are sharers of that dynamism, and in the objective reality of things, we actually cannot be separated from that dynamism.

     

      God as our Creator will always be with us, and we somehow are always with him, even if we are not aware of this reality and may even go against this reality.

     

      To actuate and keep this relation between ourselves and the rest of the species of men, and between ourselves and God and the world in general, we need to communicate.

     

      Communicating can take many forms. It may be verbal, and that’s just one form. There are many other forms we can communicate with God, others and the world. In our mind and heart, in our feelings and passions, in our memory and imagination, etc., we can already communicate.

     

      But obviously, we should strive to communicate in the best way possible. That’s why, with respect to our relation with God, our usual and abiding way of communicating is by praying which can take also many forms and is done within a network of things—doctrine, sacraments, development of virtues, ascetical struggle, etc. This is how prayer thrives.

     With respect to the others, the usual way is to talk, to enter into some conversation, and hopefully into some agreement, some consensus, especially when we have to deal with our unavoidable differences and conflicts of interests, legitimate and otherwise. We should avoid being indifferent and unconcerned of the others.

     This is where we have to learn the art of dialogue that should be pursued in the context of friendship. This is very important to all of us, and everything should be done to foster the development and inculturation of this skill.

     We need to develop compassion and understanding, the art of always thinking of the others, of knowing and anticipating their needs. In fact, we have to learn how to enter into their mind and heart, not as an act of nosiness, but rather of friendship, concern and the will to help.

     That’s the reason we often have to examine the way we think. What is the usual activity of our mind and our heart? Are they just hovering around ourselves, or are they trying to go out of themselves, to reach out to the others?

     Since we cannot help but have differences and even conflicts, we should try our best that we pursue our dialogues with utmost respect for one another. We need to stick to the essentials that actually bind us together, and these essentials include humility, mercy, magnanimity, etc.

     The most important thing is that we keep our dialogues going.