Life: A Journey for the Daring
Simone Riva - The journey God asks of us is that of life, which can only be accomplished in His company. It's a journey for the daring, for those who love their freedom.
Many of us are “back from vacation,” for which travel is the defining moment. It requires preparation, attention to detail, the use of resources, leaving our daily comforts behind, and always being open to any kind of unexpected event. In short, it’s never a foregone conclusion. Knowing the destination, however, we face it willingly. In a sense, travel reveals our real interests—what we are willing to move for.
On the first day of school, while talking to the students, I was reminded of Fernando Pessoa's poem, "If I, Still No One," in which he wrote: "To travel! To lose countries! / To be constantly something else, / to have no roots, for the soul, / to live only to see! / Not even belonging to myself! / Moving forward, moving backward / the absence of having a goal, / and the anxiety of achieving it! / Traveling like this is traveling. / But I do it and I have nothing of my own / more than the dream of passing through. / The rest is just earth and sky.”
I asked them what their attitudes were as they began their last year of high school. Almost all replied that they hoped to study harder to finish the course well. I pressed them, asking how it was possible to achieve this “greater commitment.” “By making ourselves want to,” some replied. “What makes us want to do things?” I asked. This question led to a very intense discussion, which I hope will continue.
Often, our actions are determined by the position well-described by Pessoa. We begin things without expecting anything from what we experience, so even the greatest expectations are overwhelmed by cynicism, as today's first reading reminds us: "The people could not bear the journey. The people spoke against God and against Moses: 'Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to die in this desert? For there is no bread and no water, and we are sick of this light food'" (Num 21:4–5).
We may even go so far as to regret the past when slavery was our daily condition. God's journey seems too risky, without guarantees, and beyond our control. As we know, every beginning has these characteristics. One might say that only the daring undertake it, curious to discover what it has in store.
In fact, a hypothesis has already emerged from the students in class: to observe reality and desire to seek, in a new way, what we have intuited as good for life. Not everything has the power to move us seriously and without formalities. We recognize a true interest precisely from the fact that we are originally willing to indulge it. This willingness is one of the charisms that the Spirit of God ignites in our hearts, because it often amazes even us.
The great mystic Adrienne von Speyr (1902–1967), writing about docility to the Holy Spirit, said in an article: "There is always some sign of certainty and security in the Spirit, even in the midst of the uncertainty of life in the world. And yet, the greater the need and therefore the collaboration required of us, the more we must simply allow ourselves to be disposed. In this case, it requires more effort on our part not to take the initiative in responding, and while we allow ourselves to be loved, not to respond to this love according to our own rules. It is not an exercise for beginners" (Verfügbarkeit zum Geist, Johannesgemeinschaft-Archiv, Basel, Typescript).
Whether it takes place in the classroom, in the office, at home, on a playground, in traffic, in bed, in a convent, in a workshop, on a tram, or on a plane, it will always remain a journey for the daring.
