God-sized hole

In a recent interview Shia LeBeouf, the star from the Transformer films, offered some insight into the emotional difficulties that often plague actors & actresses. He stated, “They’re all in pain. It’s a profession of bottom-feeders and heartbroken people,” he said. “Most actors on most days don’t think they’re worthy,” he added. “I have no idea where this insecurity comes from, but it’s a God-sized hole. If I knew it, I’d fill it and I’d be on my way.” [You can read the Fox News article here].

Such statements are heartbreaking, because they testify to mankind's amazing ability to correctly diagnose the problem, yet refuse the very thing that will cure them. If the thing that is causing the emotional void in our lives is God, then the only rational solution is to allow God to fill that void deep within us. Blaise Pascal, in his magisterial Pensees, wrote: "What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself. "

Admittedly, LeBouf was probably using the term "God" in the sense of "really big" or "colossal". But even in this sense his statement is tragic. Though he recognizes the solution is beyond his ability he still searches for something within his ability and grasp for a cure.

Augustine beautifully described the wholeness only found in God when at the beginning of his Confessions (1.1.1), the great African saint said to God, "You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are rest-less till they find their rest in you."

JG