Wednesday, October 25, 2006
I hope in You for Us
By Miguel Antonio N. Lizada
Papa's Chair
THE soul always turns towards a light, which it does not yet perceive, a light yet to be born, in the hope of being delivered from its present darkness. -- Gabriel Marcel
I hope in Thee for Us. It may sound like a cheesy line from a romantic movie; Jerry Maguire's "you complete me" comes into mind. Or perhaps it is something you may find in a Shakesperean sonnet. This line comes from the philosopher Gabriel Marcel.
Marcel likens the experience of God to the experience of hoping. In fact, believing in God is hoping. In this article, Marcel says that too often, we as human beings are locked in what he calls "a situation of captivity" where we feel shackled, constrained and limited. We do not feel complete. We feel despair, anguish, and sorrow.
I think we experience situations of captivity everyday. When we are in trouble at work, when we feel awkward inside our own homes and with our families, when we break up with our girlfriends/boyfriends -- in other words, situations where human beings do not seem to enjoy life or live life fully can be classified as a situations of captivity. Marcel characterizes this captivity as a form of darkness and as a response to that, hoping is turning towards a certain light, which paradoxically has yet to be seen.
For Marcel, hoping is a "positive non-acceptance." By this, people who truly hope accept the darkness but refuse to give in to it. We accept the sufferings but refuse to believe that these situations will get the better of us.
Hoping then entails swimming with the current of life while at the same time refusing to be carried by it. Hoping is being open to the situation, to be patient with the immature self and the immaturity of other people.
Marcel however warns us that the experience of hoping can be shattered by several things; one of these is disappointment. Whatever the circumstances are, disappointment always entails a disappointment with another person. Whether it is being disappointed with a backstabbing friend, an ungrateful father, or a hypocritical brother, whenever we are disappointed, we are always disappointed with someone, even if it just ourselves.
In this respect, Marcel says that the reason why we get disappointed because we expect something specific often quantifiable. Marcel calls this a relationship that is contractual.
"I can't believe you did this to me! After everything I have done for you?" "I have done so many things in this relationship and you don't even do much!"
Sayings like these form the language of people who are in a contractual relationship.
In fact, I think the elder son in the Parable of the Prodigal Son falls under this category when he berated at his father for welcoming back an ungrateful son and even throwing a party for him.
Often we are guilty of this and I quite understand why it is possible. Human as we are, finite as we are, I think it is pretty normal why we can and should expect things from other people when we do things for them, when we do favors for them; otherwise, mga walang hiyang ingrato sila!
Marcel would then go on to say however that most relationships fail precisely because they are built on the foundations of a contractual relationship. And I think Marcel is right in that regard.
After all, now that we look at it, relationships fail, friendships end, families fight because somewhere along the road, certain expectations were not fulfilled; disappointment was always there.
For Marcel then, authentic and healthy relationships involve a gradual release from a contractual logic, there is always more to the human person than what he can give, what favors he can do for you.
The same then can be said about our relationship with God. How many times have we fallen into a contractual relationship with God? When we tell God to give us this and give us that because "we have been good," we went to church every Sunday etc.
Conversely, how many times have we acted like the elder son in the parable? Where we condemn God for allowing other people who "are not worthy of such grace" to live lives that are better than ours? How many times have we said "How can you do this God?"
I have said in the previous paragraphs that we are locked in our own personal situations of captivity and by simply hoping we liberate ourselves from this situation affecting our soul. However, Marcel reminds us that as human beings, we are all locked in one all-encompassing situation of captivity, a situation where no liberation seems possible: our own mortality. (To be concluded Friday)
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