Journey To The Heart

The story of life, if I am to choose between the short form and the long form, it takes the long and winding form. Life always takes the longer part of the journey where precious things could grow and be, where love and patience could take deep roots within our empty recesses, where time could be allowed to change us, fortify us and heal us. A story is not without its winding paths, conflicts and contradictions, people coming and people going. A story is not without being torn in different directions and pulled at every side. The tension pushes us forward always to find a dwelling within the landscape that is always moving at times to a familiar rhythm but at other times a hostile one. But the landscape forever remains an enigma to us.

The journey is a long one, which no one can outlive. No one returns from the journey to tell the whole story about what is there at the end of the trail. Yet on our own we have just been allowed to wander far in our limited reason, to attempt to know all that there is to know and master the world and comprehend its minute parts. And we bore fruits from our laborious efforts to give meaning to what we call “our” world.

After wandering far, there comes a time when we arrive at the threshold and frontier. We realize we can only reason so far. We journey without really knowing; most of the days we journey with our eyes closed. If we cannot know what is in store for us in each tomorrow, then how much less do we know about what lies at the end.

Journeying Together

Beyond what I can know there is an other who refuses to be grasped, to be totalized, to be reduced to my comprehension. I cannot help it and it is too overwhelming for me to fathom. I get decentered along the path only to realize I am not treading it by myself. I do not carry the other on my back, nor do I trample upon them. Together we walk just allowing each one to be. But, Oh God! i find them all unique and different.

What about philosophy? Yes, at a particular point in my journey I stopped but philosophy afforded me with not just physical sight but with vision which is the only one that can give me direction. It is a vision that is not blurred by what is, by what could have been, by what I want to be, by categories, by personal whims or by credentials, failures and achievements. The vision is more directed to why things are, a vision that is directed not just toward the given but toward the giver—the Other who is. The vision is humble and limited which can cast light on the road only at particular periods of time. It is vision when despite the darkness that surrounds, despite the overabundance of this darkness and absurdity there is hope of something awaiting me.

The road is deeply enriching and illuminating and I am mobilized by my desire to tread this path. After all, the journey is a journey to one’s heart. The Silence of the unfathomable tomorrow, the Silence and nakedness of the Other, of what is at the end of the road beckons me to journey to my heart, to hope, to surrender, to love.

Let me quote a wise saying from Fr. Guido Arguelles, S.J. which best summarizes what I have so far brought to light,

If you have no hope, good luck! If you have no faith, get lost! If you have no love, drop dead, baby!

by J.M. Manzano