Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Love for destiny

In speaking about the conditions of freedom, Don Giussani refers back to two examples he gives about things to which we are attracted that do not lead us to our destiny. One of the examples is a married man who is attracted to his secretary more than his wife. It is his wife, his marriage, that is a conduit of his relationship with the Mystery, not a dalliance with the secretary, which is a deviation from the path that leads him to his destiny. The question becomes, "what has to happen for you to renounce that attraction [to the secretary, or whatever] and come here?" Here being where God wants you. Two things have to happen, but we'll only look at the first, which is "The awareness of destiny":


"First: a clear awareness of destiny, love for destiny. If one loses sight of destiny, then he or she errs. Everyone, a hundred out of hundred, lives like this; let's be attentive, because we too live like this. This is the horror, this is against man. It's inhuman. It's man living according to a criterion that is against man. That's what it seems like, and the whole world says: 'It's right, it's comfortable, you deserve it, you want it, so do it!' No! Because life's destiny isn't that thing we want. It's the mystery of God, awareness of the Mystery, awareness of destiny" (Is It Possible to Live This Way? pg. 72)

Awareness of our destiny is precisely what makes it possible to live this way, in the friendship of Christ, in the awareness of his Presence. Therefore, we must not lose sight of destiny, which is what corrsponds to our heart because it is only our destiny, the end for which we are created, that will satisfy our desire, which is bigger than the world. Nothing more than our desire points us to the infinite, to the Mystery. Our desire, when directed toward life's destiny, as opposed to the Mystery, is insatiable because what we seek is finite and temporal, it is here and then it is gone. So, like the rat hitting the bar for more and more crack pellets, we seek to repeat the behavior over and over, in the vain hope that this time I will be satisfied.

This is the point at which I break into a chorus of You Satisfy the Hungry Heart, about which Bruce Sprinsteen and the E Street congregation observed, everybody has one.

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