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| "Being human is difficult. Becoming a human is a life long process. To be truly human is a gift." Abraham Heschel |
The following is a passage from Jean Vanier's book, "Becoming Human". This section is taken from the chapter, "The Path to Freedom".
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To be free is to know
who we are, with all that is beautiful, all the brokenness in us; it is to love
our own values, to embrace them, and to develop them; it is to be anchored in a
vision and a truth but also to be open to others and, so, to change. Freedom
lies in discovering that the truth is not a set of fixed certitudes but a
mystery we enter into, one step at a time. It is a process of going deeper and
deeper into an unfathomable reality.
In this journey of
integrating our experience and our values, and of what we might learn we listen
to others, there may be a period of anguish. We need to find links between the
old and the new, links that will permit the integration of new,
consciousness-expanding truths into what we already know and are living-our existing
certitudes. As human sciences develop and the world evolves, we are called to
grow into a new and deeper understanding of the source of the universe and of
life. As we participate in this, our sense of the true expands. Freedom is to
be in awe of this source, of the beauty and diversity of people, and of the
universe. It is to contemplate the height and breadth of all that is true.
Freedom is to accept
that when we belong to a group, a race, a tribe, a family, a community, a
religion, that none of these are perfect, that each has its limits and
weaknesses. Every community of humans has its light and its darkness. We are
all part of something greater than ourselves. We all flow from a source that is
unfathomable and we are all journeying towards it, carrying with us the light
of truth and love. Each of us is called to be in communion with the source and
heart of the universe. The infinite yearnings of our hearts are calling us to
be in communion with the infinite. None of us can be satisfied with the limited
and finite. Each cone must be free to follow the Spirit of God.
And this freedom is for
love and compassion, to give our lives more totally and more freely to others.
It is the freedom to be kind and patient. This freedom does not seek personal honours;
it believes all, hopes all, bears all, and endures all. Freedom does not judge
or condemn but understands and forgives. Freedom is the liberation from all
those inner fears and inhibitions and that we need to ask forgiveness of those
we have hurt.
There is a freedom that
I sense exists but that I do not have. I cannot always describe it but I do
want it. I sense I still have a long road to walk in order to reach this
freedom. I see the goal but I am not yet there. I love and want it but
sometimes I am frightened on the road I must take.
I am frightened of the
disappearance of my walls of defense, sensing that behind them there is an
anguish and a vulnerability that will rise up. I see that I still cling to what
people think of me and am fed by the way people love, want, and admire me. If
all that fell away, who would I be? But that is where freedom lies, the freedom
to be rejected, if that is the path I am to take in order to live more fully.
Is that not the freedom that Jesus announces in his charter of the Beatitudes,
when he says, “Woe to you when people speak well of you”?
Jean Vanier, Becoming
Human, The Path to Freedom, Pages 117-119.
