This phrase was recently part of a liturgical prayer in which grace is requested to foster in us a deepening awareness of the sacred. By themselves, however, the two words standing alone offer a beguiling ambiguity – one having to do with the grammatical anomaly of genitive construction.
An example will clarify. Consider the phrase Peter’s torture. In this phrase, Peter could be either the victim or the perpetrator of the torture. Similarly, in the phrase nourishing reverence reverence could be the object being nourished or the subject doing the nourishing. Such is the nature of reverence. It is sparked by grace; yet, in turn, it nourishes within us the ability to experience awe. The more we revere, the more capable we are to ‘behold’ the splendor of reality.
The virtue of reverence is inextricably linked to that of humility. A humble person has a realistic understanding of his position in God’s creation. A reverent person is ‘awe-fully’ aware of the majesty of God’s creation. The humble tend to be reverent.
Literature on the virtue of reverence cites the familiar opening lines of St. Augustine’s Confessions:
Great are you, Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is your power, and your wisdom is infinite. And yet we lowly creatures desire to praise you, for we are part of your creation; we carry with us the fact that we will die as evidence of our sin and proof that you resist the proud. Still, we desire to praise you, even though we are only a small part of your creation. You have stirred in us the desire to praise you for you have made us for yourself and our heart is restless util it comes to rest in you.
Irreverence and pride are also linked. An individual who is trapped in the ‘cocoon of self-absorption’ and sees himself as the center of existence is unlikely to be reverential. Today, in our secular society, reverence – to the extent it exists – is considered a personality defect. Tragically, either as cause or effect, the swelling of pride and irreverence comes with the diminishment of our appreciation of beauty. We do not recognize the beauty in God’s creation let alone the beauty in each other.
What does the beguiling ambiguity of nourishing reverence have to do with Catholic philanthropy?
Philanthropists are individuals who deploy their resources out of reverence for the dignity and beauty they recognize in others. Catholic philanthropy – or any arising in the Judeo-Christian heritage – occurs when this response is motivated by the belief that such caring outreach is pleasing to the Creator and is seen (however so insignificantly) as part of Providence’s plan for the advance of the Kingdom.
The beguiling ambiguity is that philanthropists who revere the God-given dignity of others experience a deepening of their own ability to be amazed at God’s creation even though, as St. Augustine noted, as ‘lowly creatures’ they play only a ‘small part’.