Читать книгу Hear the Ancient Wisdom - Charles Ringma - Страница 78

March 10

The Seeking Heart

That our hearts are restless is stating the obvious. That

restlessness leads to seeking is a basic truism. That we often don’t know what we are looking for is the human tragedy.

The human quest for meaning and fulfillment is fundamental to the

human condition. But what is worth longing for and seeking after is

mainly sculpted by the dominant values of one’s society and culture.

Society has a good way of inculcating us into the politics of much-having.

But in the Western world we are also influenced in the quest for self-fulfillment shaped by individualism and the myth of the autonomous self. Thus the movement of our being is towards an isolating inwardness.

The ancient writer St. Anselm suggests that such a quest is doomed to failure. He writes, “I sought for peace within myself, and in the depths of my heart I found trouble and sorrow.”69

He seems to suggest that the inward journey in and of itself will not renew us. We will only find our dark side and our failures. We will only find a greater emptiness.

Instead, we need to find the Other. The welcoming Other. The Great Other who surprisingly does not overwhelm and does not condemn us, but welcomes us to a healing homecoming.

Self-redemption is an illusion. It is only more of the same. God’s

redemption renews us at the very core of our being.

Thought

Do seek. But don’t seek the self. Seek the Loving Other.