"The Glory of God
is
a human being fully alive."
-- Saint Irenaeus
I was thinking about platitudes, and then along comes this quote above. Seems to fit perfectly in my mind as a platitude. I mean, what is that all about? What did Saint Irenaeus really mean by saying, "fully alive." I'm assuming that he meant something more than having a pulse and breathing in and out. But, what exactly? What does it mean to be fully alive?
Maybe it means something as simple as enjoying our life. Would a Christian early church leader who died in 202 A.D. say that? Hmmm. I think not. Would it mean to be more giving? Giving more? More loving? Loving more? More devout? More enthusiastic?
Maybe it is knowing our priorities and following through. Or maybe it was to be more physically fit, strong, and/or healthy. Perhaps it means to be more active in the community--a valued participant in affairs outside our own little world. It could be that fully alive means to love God more, or even recognize there is a God.
Who knows? It's one of those phrases that sounds like it is saying so much, and being so profound, and yet, nobody knows what it means. People may even go around repeating it, and others might think that they know what it means, afraid to admit that they don't get it. How many times have we done that in our lives? I know I certainly have.
So, what it comes down to is that, in my opinion, the phrase to be fully alive doesn't mean anything, unless you give it some kind of meaning yourself.
Go For It. Make Your Own Definition Of What Being Fully Alive Means. That Will Be What It Means.
Spread Some Joy Today--by feeling fully alive? Maybe. Maybe that's where joy lives.
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