Did you ever wonder what it means to become a person?

The one who gives without receiving (if such there could be) might be a great philanthropist, 

but is not a person; 

and one who receives without giving may become as rich as a great philanthropist, 

but is not a person; 

they are individuals, and they and all their works will be destroyed. 

To the extent that a person “holds on” to whatever he receives (and all that he has is something received), he remains an individual; 

to the extent that the individual refashions what he receives and gives it, he becomes a person. 

In this way, each person recapitulates the whole of being, which is nothing less than an interchange of love between the divine persons. What is “ours” will pass; what is given and received will endure. Indeed, salvation, and hence survival, is … always to lose one’s individuality in favor of one’s personhood; the former attempts to stand alone and apart, the latter is always relational; what stands apart can only lead to death; what is shared is life itself.

- A quote by John Médaille referenced at the conclusion of an insightful article, "Beyond 'Unity": An Approach to Inter-Spiritual Dialogue" by Stratford Caldecott