One of a Kind<\/strong><\/a>\nThursday, March 22, 2018<\/strong>\n<\/iframe><br \/>\n<em>My friend, Sister of Saint Joseph and Professor Mary Beth Ingham, knows John Duns Scotus inside and out. Over a decade ago we spoke together at a conference in Albuquerque called <\/em>Holding the Tension. <em>Today I share her insights from Duns Scotus\u2019 teaching of <\/em>haecceity<em> or thisness, drawn from that conference. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>What is<em> haecceity<\/em>? It\u2019s you. It\u2019s the unique identity inherent in each being. Each one of us has been given our gift, and that\u2019s our little \u201c<em>haec<\/em>.\u201d It\u2019s what makes me, me, and not somebody else. <em>Haec<\/em> cannot be cloned. It\u2019s the part of me that is not to be replicated.<\/p>\n<p>So, I\u2019m not just one of a kind, and you\u2019re not just one of a kind, and we are each not just one of a kind; we are one of an eternity. No pressure! Each of us has come with a gift. And if we do not give our gift, the world misses out.<\/p>\n<p><em>Haecceity <\/em>is a term invented by Duns Scotus to capture the ineffable. It\u2019s that which I cannot name within myself. No amount of self-help exercises will ever exhaust the mystery that is me. So, the good news is I can never figure myself out. I can always surprise myself.<\/p>\n<p>Since before the foundation of the world, God has longed to be one with us. Jesus is the mutuality of God in creation. The incarnation is God\u2019s presence in our world\u2014not an event of the past. The incarnation is still going on in our lives. And our vocation is to join God\u2019s dynamic, incarnate energy in the world and to be that presence wherever we find ourselves.<\/p>\n<p>Duns Scotus writes: \u201cYou ask me, what is this <em>haec<\/em>? What is this thing from which the individual difference is taken? Is it matter or form or the composite? I give you this answer: . . . It\u2019s just <em>this<\/em>.\u201d [1]<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019re just yourself. Live with it. Here I am. I\u2019m just me and all I can do is be me. That\u2019s the only thing I can do, and I can do it better than anybody else. If I don\u2019t do it, nobody will do it. So often we spend our lives trying to be other people. Yet God says, \u201cI made you, and I like the you I\u2019ve made, so just do your best and be yourself, and I\u2019ll be there to help you.\u201d It\u2019s not something we have to do alone, but something we grow into.<\/p>\n<p>Allan Wolter [a Franciscan theologian and philosopher] said that <em>haecceity <\/em>invests each person with a unique value as one singularly wanted and loved by God, quite apart from any trait that person shares with anybody else, or any contribution he or she might make to society. <em>Haecceity<\/em> is our personal gift from God. [2] Part of our vocation is to appreciate ourselves as the pearl of great price\u2014because God does. We get to discover ourselves as the treasure in the field and to rejoice with God in the wondrous work that God does in each of our lives (Matthew 13:44-46), quite independent of any contribution we might make to society, any quantitative way of measuring.<\/p>\n<p>________________________________________________<\/p>\n<div class=\"row title-row\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"utmost-devo-title col col-sm-12 col-xs-12\">\n<h2 class=\"entry-title\">The Burning Heart<\/h2>\n<h4>By <a href=\"https:\/\/utmost.org\/oswald-chambers-bio\">Oswald Chambers<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"clearfix\">\u00a0<strong>Did not our heart burn within us? \u2014 <a title=\"Luke 24:32\" href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?version=31&search=Luke+24%3A32\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Luke\u00a024:32<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n<div class=\"row entry-meta\">\n<div class=\"col-sm-4\">\n<div class=\"top-sharing\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"top-rule\">\u00a0We need to learn this secret of the burning heart. Suddenly Jesus appears to us, the fires are kindled, we have wonderful visions; then we have to learn to keep the secret of the burning heart that will go through anything. It is the dull, bald, dreary, commonplace day, with commonplace duties and people, that kills the burning heart unless we have learned the secret of abiding in Jesus.<\/div>\n<section class=\"entry-content\">\n<div class=\"post-content\">\n<p>Much of our distress as Christians comes not because of sin, but because we are ignorant of the laws of our own nature. For instance, the only test as to whether we ought to allow an emotion to have its way is to see what the outcome of the emotion will be. Push it to its logical conclusion, and if the outcome is something God would condemn, allow it no more way. But if it be an emotion kindled by the Spirit of God and you do not let that emotion have its right issue in your life, it will react on a lower level. That is the way sentimentalists are made. The higher the emotion is, the deeper the degradation will be if it is not worked out on its proper level. If the Spirit of God has stirred you, make as many things inevitable as possible, let the consequences be what they will. We cannot stay on the mount of transfiguration, but we must obey the light we received there; we must act it out. When God gives a vision, transact business on that line, no matter what it costs.<\/p>\n<p><i>We cannot kindle when we will<br \/>\nThe fire which in the heart resides,<br \/>\nThe spirit bloweth and is still,<br \/>\nIn mystery our soul abides;<br \/>\nBut tasks in hours of insight will\u2019d<br \/>\nCan be through hours of gloom fulfill\u2019d.<\/i>*<\/p>\n<p>*Matthew Arnold, Morality (1852)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Richard Rohr One of a Kind Thursday, March 22, 2018 My friend, Sister of Saint Joseph and Professor Mary Beth Ingham, knows John Duns Scotus inside and out. Over a decade ago we spoke together at a conference in Albuquerque called Holding the Tension. Today I share her insights from Duns Scotus\u2019 teaching of haecceity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16559"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16559"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16563,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16559\/revisions\/16563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}