Long Journey Home

DY, JOHN MICHAEL U.

BSAT 3D

PHILO 106

MWF 1:30-2:30P Long Journey Home

Chapter 13: A Perfect Fit This chapter begins with the story of Martin Luther King Jr. and on how he fought for the rights of the Negroes. In 1963, it was Bob Moses who first pushed for the increase of the black voter registration in the South. Dick Gregory, a comedian, was with Bob Moses and he (Dick Gregory) was the first national celebrity to offer help. Martin Luther King Jr. planned protests but many people and even the sympathizers criticized it. The city’s mayor told everyone to ignore these protests for he was planning reforms. But Martin Luther King Jr. still continued his protests. He led the march on Good Friday and the Birmingham police hastily arrested him. King said that it was “a poorly timed protest.” While in jail, King’s former supporters and sympathizers

doubted

his

moral

grounds

for

civil

disobedience.

He

responded to this issue by writing the “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” This letter was very persuasive; it included attacks on white moderates and pithy pronouncements on the principles of justice. King is saying that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. Law has a bifocal vision, just like the biblical family of faiths, who believes that they are both world-affirming and world-denying. Is this bifocal vision true? There are two mistakes that people make in answering this question. First is that “some people set up impossible standards for truth that no one could pass.” (Page 145) And the other is that “other people simply bypass the question of truth altogether.” (Page 145) Religious believers are mostly the ones who are accused for committing this second mistake because of “believing despite evidence.” There are two ways in investigating whether these beliefs with the evidence and both of these are very important in our quest for meaning. One way is to examine

particular beliefs close up and in detail and the second is to see the big picture. Seeing the big picture means examining different approaches to see which model is better at explaining the most facts. Examining the different beliefs and worldviews is very essential to others on their quest for meaning. G.K. Chesterton did this “examining.” He was wondering why in Christianity, he was experiencing both the optimistic and pessimistic factor of the religion. He investigated and examined on this and later on, the parts started to connect and they are all coming together. The Christian faith gave G.K. Chesterton an optimism and pessimism with a difference, and a justification for both at the same time. (Page 150) Chapter 14: The Best News Ever The twentieth century was the most evil century in all history because of the countless millions slain in ethnic and sectarian conflicts, wars, hundred millions of people slaughtered in political repression, and many more. Ambrose Bierce said that the defining feature of humanity is inhumanity. There are two lessons from the evil in humanity’s story of inhumanity and many people were surprised about it. First is that evil hardens the heart to the point of tearlessness, and it takes goodness to crack the heart open, and second is that under dire circumstances of suffering, which might be thought to wound or weaken our faith in God, faith emerges stronger on the other side of hell on earth. Phillip Hallie is a professor of philosophy and a Jew. One day in the year 1975, while he was in Le Chambon, he read a short article about a small village. While reading that short article, he shed a tear and started to cry. As what he said, it was an expression of moral praise. He wept while reading that article because he realized that there is still goodness in opposition to cruelty. Phillip Hallie said that the holocaust was the storm, the rain, the lightning – the cruelty and Le Chambon was the rainbow – the

goodness. Hallie believes that evil can be a way to God. We are getting so much used to having evil around us that we don’t care about it that much but eventually a good news will come and this good news can help soften our hearts and it makes us realize that there is still good in our hearts. The next step in the quest for meaning is to examine in close detail its keystone belief. For Christians, the keystone belief is the identity of Jesus Christ. The process of examining this keystone belief can be compared to the movement of the corkscrew. The first twist of the corkscrew is all about exploring

certain

preliminary

conclusions

about

Jesus

that

are

incontrovertible two thousand years after his birth. (Page 156-157) The next twist is all about Jesus’ unlikely significance. In the next twist, we ask the question “What does it say of him that his claims, if not true, are so outrageous that many who do not revere him revile him?” (Page 160) It is thee seeker’s quest to know the truth and the evidence behind that truth. Another twist of the corkscrew involves a second-person engagement. In this engagement, we begin to realize that Jesus’ factual and historical evidence is inseparable from the personal mission of Jesus and the personal quest of the seeker. Chapter 15: Never More Ourselves Vaclac Havel is a son of a civil engineer. He was one of Europe’s premier playwrights and he was an active advocate in the movement for human rights. Havel became a target for the regime because of his essays that were on the nature of totalitarianism. Policemen followed him everywhere and he always bring with him his “emergency kit” which contains toothpaste, cigarettes, and razor blades, in case he was arrested in the streets. He was arrested at five o’clock on the morning of May 29, 1979. He was charged with “subversion”. He was in prison for five years and in that five years, he reflected upon his life. Once a week, he is given a chance to

write a letter to his wife, Olga. His letters were very philosophical. He expressed his thoughts about life and modern society through those letters. On July 1982, he wrote a letter to Olga telling a story that he have illusions that at night he rides a car and the car is empty. The fare for the ride is paid by dropping money to a box. Since no one is there to watch him, he has the choice to pay the fare or not. He was facing a big problem: to pay or not to pay? In Havel’s great dilemma, he realized the concepts of responsibility and invisibility. The problem is entirely within him. Havel reflected that it was a conversation between his “I” and his “partner” – his conscience. The fourth stage for the quest for meaning is a time for commitment. In this stage we can finally say that we have started our journey home to God. There is a common mistake that seekers commit in this stage and that is to allow the lure of technique to intrude again. Sometimes, the seeker is confronted with people who want to just simplify the faith and sell it, thus reducing their understanding about the faith. It decreases the great change of conversion. Full commitment weakens because it becomes a formality. It easily becomes abstract and hard to understand, and easily becomes weak and irrational. A thoughtful step of faith has three vital components: knowledge, which grows into conviction, which grows into trust. Knowledge is included in faith because we are not asked to someone that we do not know. Also, it includes conviction because we have become sure of the truth about faith. And lastly, it includes trust because having faith is believing that the entire person is really committed to someone. Man’s faith and the way a man believes is compared to the way a lion kills. As for C.S. Lewis, the whole point of this quest is to travel, not to marvel at the signposts. The learnings and realizations that we are going to encounter in our quest are very important. We’re never more ourselves than when we make the commitment that forms our part of faith.

Chapter 16: The Hound of Heaven Simone Weil was called in many names. She had many nicknames because of her personality. Some people call her “the Red Virgin” because of her chastity and radicalism. She was also called “the Martian” because she was unlike any other; she has nothing in common with other people. She always received strong and paradoxical responses from her friends, teachers, etc. Simon Weil lived a short, sad, and a misunderstood life. She feels like she’s a failure and a disappointment. But after her death, she was declared as the greatest spiritual thinker. Simon Weil is a philosopher, and activist, and a mystic. She has a huge desire in seeking the truth. Simon Weil have encounters on her journey which she called “contacts with Catholicism that really counted.” These encounters made her more eager in her quest in finding the truth. She had one encounter where she really felt God’s presence and it made her believe in God. She said “Christ himself came down and took possession of me.” When she was still young, she did not believe in God because she did not answer the questions about God because for her, giving the wrong answers or wrong solutions, is the most evil thing possible, and so she left it alone. After that encounter, she agreed with Pascal’s explanation of the human search for meaning- “You would not look for me if you had not already found me.” We find God only because God finds us. In the fourth stage on our quest for meaning, there is “an unmistakable awareness that although we start out searching, we end up being discovered. We think we’re looking for something, but we find that we’re already found by someone.” (Page 187) Our quest for meaning is a personal journey but God’s intervention while we are on our journey is very important because we all need a guide. Without God’s intervention, we might get lost on our quest for meaning. C.S. Lewis said that we should continue to seek God with seriousness. In this stage, we need the complete change that

conversion brings and the complete turnaround of conversion that leads us in the right direction. C.S. Lewis said that we should continue to seek God with seriousness. Chapter 17: Truth or Nothing Kenneth Clark, the youngest ever director of National Gallery, was an influential author and was one of the most admired, and envied men of his generation. He was a fan of Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts. Ghosts is a play that is about the young artist Oswald Alving. Kenneth Clark watched it twice, once when he was in college, and second time when he was viewing a production at London’s National Theatre. He fainted in watching this play because of its very tragic yet meaningful ending. Kenneth Clark, K as his friends call him, is a very mysterious man. His friend, Graham Sutherland, tried to paint a portrait of him but he eventually gave up on the portrait because K’s expressions were changing constantly, and Sutherland cannot understand what personality K is trying to convey. Kenneth Clark’s childhood do not have religious experiences or examples. His mother was scared of going to church because it might touch her emotions. When K grew older, he went to the Church of San Lorenzo and in there, he had a religious experience. He said that he felt the finger of God touching him but he decisively did not respond to it. Kenneth Clark died on May 1985 and an Irish priest said that he confessed and he had been received in the church a week before he died. Kenneth Clark’s story can be connected to the fourth stage for the quest of meaning. “The truth may be pressing, conclusions may be compelling, but there’s no inevitability of faith and commitment even at this point.” (Page 198) In our quest, we have the choice to either to seek to conform our desires to the truth, which leads us to conviction, or to seek to conform the truth to our desires, which leads us to evasion. “Danger point” as Nietzsche describes it, is the point when men realize that life has no

meaning. Another danger point is when seekers find out the truth and they may not like it, and so they reject it. As human beings, we are truth seekers and as fallen human beings, we are truth twisters. We are truth seekers in the sense that we are having this quest for our meaning, trying to find the truth and meaning of our lives. But on the other hand, we are also truth twisters in a way that when we do not like the truth that is being handed to us, we tend to reject it and we try to change it according to our liking and expectations. The truth hurts and that is why we try to refuse and reject these truths that we cannot fully accept. But no matter how hurtful accepting the truth is, we must conform to it. Chapter 18: Entrepreneurs of Life “The end of the quest for meaning is the beginning of the journey of faith.” This is the last chapter of the book and this chapter basically tells us what we have achieved and what we have learned during our quest for meaning. This chapter tells us that all our success and our achievements – money, the perfect job, having a happy family, power – would all be put to waste if we do not satisfy out need and deeper longing for the truth and our purpose. Finding the purpose of our life is very important for without it, we do not know who or what we are living for. We are living a blind and pretentious life without knowing our meaning. Even though our life is already very perfect, we will still flunk and fail without finding the meaning of our life. There are three factors that have combined to fuel a search for significance. First is that our search for our meaning is one of the most intimate, personal, and at the same time the most meaningful issues that we are experiencing. Second, our expectations of living and having a purposeful and meaningful life has given a boost by the modern society’s offer of

change everything that we do. And lastly, our fulfillment is opposed by the fact that modern Western civilization is the very first to have no agreed-on answer to the question of the purpose and meaning of life. The three families of faith have different views of purpose. For the Eastern faith, they believe that our desire for finding our purpose traps us in a world of illusion. For the Western faith, they believe that we must create our own purpose, instead of discovering it. And for the biblical faith, their belief is to follow the call of the Creator – God. Answering and following the call of God is highest source of purpose in this journey of finding the meaning of our lives. By doing this, we become “entrepreneurs of life.” God’s calling means that he calls us to himself so that everything that we are, everything we do, and everything that we have is invested with a special devotion to his summons and service. “Entrepreneurs of life” means that by answering the call of God, as entrepreneurs of life, we use our talents to be fruitful and to bring more value to the world that we are living. Personal Response I find the last sections of the book very meaningful since those are the sections that are concluding our quest for meaning. In reading those last sections, I realized that finding the purpose of our lives is very important because this is what we long for since the day of our birth. All the success, wealth, money, and power that we will have in the near future would be useless if we do not satisfy this need and longing for the meaning of our lives. This means that no matter what you achieve, your life would still have a missing piece if you don’t find the meaning of your life. I have also learned that we need to learn how to accept the truth. We all know that the truth really hurts and despite the pain and disappointment that we will have in accepting this truth, we should be thankful that we knew the truth. Knowing

the truth, even if it hurts, is better than just hearing lies, lies, and more lies just for us to satisfy the truth that we want. As human beings, we are truth seekers and as fallen human beings, we are truth twisters. Responding to the call of God, our Creator is the most important and meaningful lesson that I have learned in reading the last sections of this book. God is our Father, our Creator, our Savior and He should be respected. We should follow his commands and respond to His call. By doing so, we can easily find the meaning of our life. This journey is a very long journey but I think it will all be worth it in the end. All the sufferings, the hardships, and the challenges that we will be facing as we continue this journey are very worth it because in the end, we will be satisfying our longing – our meaning and the purpose of why we are living. Though this journey is not as easy as it seems, it will be very worth it. Finding the meaning of our lives is one of the most rewarding experiences that we will be having in this journey, that is our life.