Karl Rahner, the brilliant Jesuit theologian, said, “theology is anthropology”, meaning that one can’t discuss God without discussing the human person. What was Titus’ theology and what does this tell us about his anthropology?

Titus wrote, “But reason, as well as faith, lets us recognize ourselves as bearers of God: if God is in us, the living God who overflows with love, how can it not be that sometimes, so to say, God himself is overwhelmed and unable to hold himself hidden anymore from the heart that longs for his countenance?

This suggestive phase evokes Titus’ view of a God trembling with eagerness to share God’s very self with us. In the presence of human yearning, the Divine is unable to hold back and must respond to the human creatures who desire to see God’s Face. This theology is remarkably up to date with its emphasis on the reciprocity existing between humans and their porous God. We are the objects of God’s attention, inquiry and pursuit. But God’s attention is courteous and discreet. Titus reminds us: “God appears in the symbols and forms and speaks in words and sounds that the soul will recognize as Divine.” In other words, God doesn’t hit us over the head with a two-by-four but gently makes the Divine available to us. The initiative is always on the side of the Divine, but the soul must learn to be sensitive to God’s nearness.

Following his theology of an eagerly communicative God, Titus’ anthropology places the human person squarely in a web of relationships with God, with each other, with the larger community and with the Church. The very nature of our mutual relationship with God implies a similar reciprocity with our fellow human beings. Already in the 1930’s Titus was warning about the danger of mass movements or group ideologies, such as National Socialism, which obliterated individual freedom and mutual responsibility for each other. Titus cautioned: “. acknowledgement of mutual dependency must be one of the first conditions for the restoration of the shattered order”. We cannot truly say “Amen” to the Eucharist proclamation of “The Body of Christ” unless we understand the very concrete, daily manifestations of this interconnected reality.

Titus had a unified, integrated view of the human persona, not a dualistic one. The human situation is often ambiguous, he knew, and not always black and white, or clearly good or bad. Given his theological understanding of God’s trembling responsiveness to human beings, he never posits a clear division between God and the world. He urges “don’t divide your love between God and the world” and says “. . . we should see the world with God in the background so no sharp contrast is created”. This is solid, classical Catholic teaching about the goodness of the world and God’s graced presence in it.

Similarly, Titus preached a holistic, non-dualistic approach to body and spirit: “We are not just spirit, but also a real person, and even if, sometimes, the spirit may seem to have the upper hand, the body never disappears. . .“ Just as there is not sharp division between God and God’s grace in the material world, so we are a unity whereby “one part may be affected spiritually and gradually have its effect on other parts of the person”. Human beings exist in a dynamic relationship to themselves, to each other, and towards God. This insight found practical application in some of the “mystical” cases that Titus was asked to evaluate to distinguish between a true mystical phenomenon or a neurotic disorder. Always respectful and charitable towards the persons involved, he counseled against any rigid rules in this area and pointed out that God’s influence isn’t necessarily seen immediately in all parts of a person’s being. The neurotic parts may well be in the process of being healed even when it isn’t apparent to the observer.

Noteworthy in Titus’ thinking about humankind is how infrequently he refers to sin. Certainly he was far too realistic to deny the existence of evil and its effects, but this is not where we find his emphasis. Rather he stresses sin’s “wider meaning for everything that, more or less, runs counter to the regulations and ordinances of God”. Here we see again his basic orientation to the reciprocal ties between God and human person and the integration of this relationship into our daily lives.

His theology of God’s intimate, mutual involvement with us leads to his positive anthropology and his trust in our ability to integrate our human nature with our redeemed humanity. This very optimistic outlook, especially given the circumstances at the end of Titus’ life, can reassure us when we are overwhelmed with our own human failures and narrow self-interest.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

Titus reminds us of God’s fierce impulse towards self-communication. What are the areas in my life where I am aware of God’s love having overflowed towards me or towards someone else? When have I been aware that my yearning for the Divine Face has been matched by God’s inclination toward me?

In what “symbols and forms” has this occurred? What are ways in which I may heighten my sensitivity to God’s presence in the world and desire for me?