Dead or saint
This philosophy of Albert Camus is quite similar to
Beauvoir’s one. Both resign seeking the Truth of the world and blind
themselves, thinking that this Truth impossible to discover and that it will
probably only lead to a despairing passivity. For them man will by this way
only obsess himself with the idea that he is dust, that he will return to dust
and that his actions are useless. And they both argue that man actualize is
freedom when acting, projecting his vitality in the present with the base of
some ethics like the struggle for other’s liberation. But I dare to say that
what they write is only partially right. Benedict XVI, when he was the cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger, published in 1995, an article untitled “Freedom and Truth” in
the theological review Communio, which
ends with this sentence: “If there is no truth about man, man also has no
freedom. Only truth makes us free.” And really, can one be satisfied with the
only “truth” of the absurdity of life and of a revolt against the wind? I cannot.
And which mysterious truth do I find, when looking for it? Which is the truth
of life? Here I let the word to Olivier de Maistre, a young French monk (sorry
for the translation):
“To be born in this communion of love with God, and,
inside this communion, to be born in communion with others. Our life is
off-the-subject if it is not all ordered to this. It is the essential of what
every man has to live. His being will find his fullness of being only
there. It is THE life. As a Cistercian monk
told it: “It is living, because the rest, we cannot call it living. They have
gone through life but they haven’t lived.” That is why I dare to say that we
are either dead, either be born in holiness. Some will think I am an extremist.
But it is life which is extreme.
Whether one is child, young man, single person,
grand-mother, monk or priest, it is the very thread of life. All our
capacities, our deepest aspirations, our qualities, are like pearls which have
a hole, a “gap”, made for a thread, and which find their meaning only with this
thread and around the neck of our person, our face. The life of this world
finds absolutely all its meaning to our eyes when we see the thread which is its
basis. Otherwise there are only juxtaposed things, like these pearls which
would have, without the thread, no connection between them, no order and
therefore no measure, no harmony. There would be no peace between us, only
twinge in every direction.
And even if prayer is a pearl, it is not sufficient.
Even the salvation offered by Christ, even the love of the Father for us – THE
precious stone around which all other pearls WILL MAKE a wonderful necklace –
are not sufficient, if I dare to say. It is not the thread which allows tying
them around our neck. The true thread of this necklace is the love of God FOR
HIMSELF, beyond all what we can receive from him of feelings, desires or light.
And it is impossible by us. We are incapable of loving God for what he is. The
love of God for himself, it is the Holy Spirit Himself. And it is him, the
thread of our necklace, the thread of our life. This thread, it is the love
which God wants to live with each one of us in a true reciprocity.
Our life is a wonderful jewelry case where all is made
available to us, both to be born to the truth of what God gives us, of this God
“Breath of gift” who gives himself to us, and to be born to a mutual love. And
everything becomes to us acts of love towards him, towards his joy. How much is
great the beauty of the marriage, the beauty of friendships, the beauty of the conjugal
act, the beauty of the childbirth, the beauty of the family when it is seen
within this union to God !
A
lot of Christians rather think that there is a rupture between life in this
world and life after death, where we will be able to live an eternal life,
which we do not really know of what it will be made, but an eternal life we
will have despite the off-the-subject life we have lived on earth, because
Jesus kindly saved us on the cross. But no. The reason of our universe is:
birth to the eternal life. It is to a happiness of communion with God, with
everyone in God, that we are given to be born from now. The love of the Father
for the Son, of the Son for the Father, their communion, it is the Holy Spirit.
And it is him who is given to us as the source of white and crystalline water
in which we can dive to wash us, to refresh ourselves and to go on the way of
the plenary communion with the Father. The rest is despair. And if we can
succeed in make it up during years, we will however end by experiencing it. The
rest is pointless if it is not lived FOR this communion with the Father and IN
this communion.”
Extract from Dead
or saint, spiritual notebook of a
young carpenter, Olivier de Maistre
Feel free to comment J
Hello Paule !
ReplyDeleteI used to be offended by this kind of speeches,these recommendations ... no...these orders proposed by the Church, or imposes passively aggressively.
I learnt this year to listen before judging, to be tolerant as I want Church to be with me. It seems a catholic principle : don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you.
I listened. Now I will judge, and maybe try to convince you this Truth that you talked about is freedom. And the Truth is not what you think of it.
DISCLAIMER : this is my opinion. Faith is something personnal, that's why it is sensitive.
Firstly I don't see life as an ornament.
But however I understand the main idea : What makes our life coherent, our life meaningful. And for Olivier De Maistres, for you it is love of God. Love of God makes you dead or saint.
As pretentious as defining the meaning of life is, I can understand this quest. I often ask myself. Why ? And I'm not fully convince by the absurdity of life, even if it is the only sure thing, even if it's the only thing that can apply to everybody.
I am not dead. And I am not saint.
I don't have what you call the love of God.
I would like to have it but yet ... I don't have it.
Does this mean I going through the life without living ?
I don't know what you mean by living or not, we are all living, I don't see borders between life, I don't see a scale of life.
Is he telling us that he is higher than us ? He lives a good life, he found happiness I am grateful for him, this is an accomplishment. But he have not the right to impose his way to me.
I believe not in one truth, but in truths.
In sciences, there were truths that in fact were not truths, (Light is wave or particle ?).
How can, at any age, at any level of wisdom, say you found other truths ?
I don't say that his truth is not real. It is for sure, as long as he believes in.
I am not dead, nor saint. I don't plan to find love of God. I plan to be someone I'm proud of. I have my ideas of bad and good. I have some truths that need to grow up. But I surely won't tell you what your truth is.
It is up to you. I can help you, I can be with you but I can't be inside.
That's why truth is freedom. Truth is inside, and as we are unique and the same, we have the right to "pursuit our happiness". And happiness may not be in one thing. The key is to listen, to be a blank space where people write who they are, what they think to understand and discover other way of thinking, other truths.
I learnt this year that faith is not stupid, because it is what you think. And I can't judge because I don't, personnally, believe in.
That is why I'm no more offended by these words. I think Olivier De Maistres has a long way to go, as I have, and maybe one day or not he will be enough open to not only accept but understand we aren't in a binary world. We are not dead or saint. We are not black or white. Rainbow power.
Much love sweetie
Clem
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ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteI found your post very interesting, however I do not quite agree with how you have interpreted the philosophy of Camus and Beauvoir. You said that they both blind themselves because they think Truth is impossible to discover. However I think this is not so accurate, and it is rather that they are insinuating there is not some objective formula for existence that exists in the world (such as the one prescribed by religion) and this is why they emphasize that you must create your own existence. Thus, yes according to them there is no objective Truth, but it is not because Truth does not exist, but because one is responsible to create their own and not depend on the external to define themselves.