Categoria: English

The Path as Archetype

Leonardo BoffDeixe um comentário

I have a special fascination for paths, especially for the country roads that climb painfully up the mountain and disappear into the jungle curves. Or the paths in the Alps of Southern Germany, covered by multicolor leaves, that I walked on gray autumn afternoons in my student days. These paths are within us. We must ask the paths why there are such distances, why they are sometimes difficult to follow, or so tortuous that they tire us out. They hold the secrets of the walkers’ feet, the weight of their sadness or the lightness of their joy at having found their beloved.

The path constitutes one of the most ancestral archetypes of the human psyche. Humans keep the memory of all the paths followed throughout the 13.7 billion years of the evolutionary process. It especially keeps the memory of when our ancestors appeared: a branch of the vertebrates, class of the mammals, order of the primates, family of the hominids, the genre homo, the present sapiens/demens species.

Given this incommensurable memory, the human path appears very complex and often indecipherable. In each person’s path, the millions and millions of experiences of long gone paths, walked by countless generations, are still at work. Each person is tasked with lengthening this path, doing so in a way that improves and deepens the path that was received, straightens what was twisted and leaves to future travelers a path enriched by their footsteps.

The path has always been and still is an experience in direction, that indicates the goal and simultaneously the way that goal is reached. Without a path we feel lost, inward and outwardly. We become filled of darkness and confusion. As today, humanity is without direction, and in blind flight, with neither compass nor stars for orientation in the gloomiest nights.

Each human being is a homo viator, a walker through the paths of life. As Argentinean Native poet and singer Atahualpa Yupanqui says: «the human being is the Earth who walks». We do not receive our existence ready made. We must build it. And to that end, we must open the path, starting with and going beyond the paths that preceded ours, and have already been walked. Even so, our personal path is never completely given. It must be built with creativity and without fear. As the Spanish poet Antonio Machado says: «walker, there is no path; the path is made by walking».

In effect, we are always on the way to our own selves. At bottom, either we realize ourselves, or we are lost. Therefore, there are basically two paths, as the First Psalm of the Bible says: the path of the just or the path of the impious, the path of light or the path of darkness, the path of selfishness or the path of solidarity, the path of love or the path of indifference, the path of peace or the path of conflict. In a word: the path that leads to a good end or the path that leads to the abyss.

But let’s pay attention: in the concrete human condition the two paths always coexist, and sometimes cross each other. Within the good path is also hidden the bad, and in the bad, the good. Both cross our hearts. This is our drama that could be transformed into crisis, and even into tragedy.

Since it is difficult to fully separate the chaff from the wheat, the good path from the bad, we are obliged to make a fundamental option in favor of one of them: for the good path, even though it may cost us renunciations or bring us disadvantages, but at least it gives us peace of conscience and the perception that we are correct. And there are those who opt for the path of evil: this is the easier path, it imposes no limitations, because all is fair so long as it is beneficial. But there is a price: the accusation of the conscience, the risk of punishment, and even of being eliminated.

This fundamental option confers an ethical quality on the human path. If we opt for the good path, the small mistaken steps or blunders will not destroy the path and its direction. What really counts to the conscience and to The One who with justice judges all, is the fundamental option we make.

For this reason, the dominant tendency in Christian moral theology is to substitute the language of minor or mortal sins with another, more in keeping with this unity of the human path: fidelity or infidelity to the fundamental option. One’s actions must not be isolated and judged apart from the fundamental option. It is a question of capturing the basic attitude and the fundamental project that is reflected in actions, and unifies life’s direction. If one opts for the good, with constancy and fidelity, it will confer more or less goodness to the actions, in spite of the ups and downs that always occur but which will not destroy a good path. They will certainly pass through the severe clinic of God if they find pity for their wickedness.

There is no escape: we have to choose the path to build and how to follow it, knowing that «living is dangerous» (Guimarães Rosa). But we never do it alone. Multitudes walk with us, solidarians in the same destiny, accompanied by Someone named: “Emmanuel, God with us”.
Leonardo Boff

Translation by Melina Alfaro, alfaro_melina@yahoo.com.ar

The Path as Archetype

Leonardo Boff3 Comentários

I have a special fascination for paths, especially for the country roads that climb painfully up the mountain and disappear into the jungle curves. Or the paths in the Alps of Southern Germany, covered by multicolor leaves, that I walked on gray autumn afternoons in my student days. These paths are within us. We must ask the paths why there are such distances, why they are sometimes difficult to follow, or so tortuous that they tire us out. They hold the secrets of the walkers’ feet, the weight of their sadness or the lightness of their joy at having found their beloved.

The path constitutes one of the most ancestral archetypes of the human psyche. Humans keep the memory of all the paths followed throughout the 13.7 billion years of the evolutionary process. It especially keeps the memory of when our ancestors appeared: a branch of the vertebrates, class of the mammals, order of the primates, family of the hominids, the genre homo, the present sapiens/demens species.

Given this incommensurable memory, the human path appears very complex and often indecipherable. In each person’s path, the millions and millions of experiences of long gone paths, walked by countless generations, are still at work. Each person is tasked with lengthening this path, doing so in a way that improves and deepens the path that was received, straightens what was twisted and leaves to future travelers a path enriched by their footsteps.

The path has always been and still is an experience in direction, that indicates the goal and simultaneously the way that goal is reached. Without a path we feel lost, inward and outwardly. We become filled of darkness and confusion. As today, humanity is without direction, and in blind flight, with neither compass nor stars for orientation in the gloomiest nights.

Each human being is a homo viator, a walker through the paths of life. As Argentinean Native poet and singer Atahualpa Yupanqui says: «the human being is the Earth who walks». We do not receive our existence ready made. We must build it. And to that end, we must open the path, starting with and going beyond the paths that preceded ours, and have already been walked. Even so, our personal path is never completely given. It must be built with creativity and without fear. As the Spanish poet Antonio Machado says: «walker, there is no path; the path is made by walking».

In effect, we are always on the way to our own selves. At bottom, either we realize ourselves, or we are lost. Therefore, there are basically two paths, as the First Psalm of the Bible says: the path of the just or the path of the impious, the path of light or the path of darkness, the path of selfishness or the path of solidarity, the path of love or the path of indifference, the path of peace or the path of conflict. In a word: the path that leads to a good end or the path that leads to the abyss.

But let’s pay attention: in the concrete human condition the two paths always coexist, and sometimes cross each other. Within the good path is also hidden the bad, and in the bad, the good. Both cross our hearts. This is our drama that could be transformed into crisis, and even into tragedy.

Since it is difficult to fully separate the chaff from the wheat, the good path from the bad, we are obliged to make a fundamental option in favor of one of them: for the good path, even though it may cost us renunciations or bring us disadvantages, but at least it gives us peace of conscience and the perception that we are correct. And there are those who opt for the path of evil: this is the easier path, it imposes no limitations, because all is fair so long as it is beneficial. But there is a price: the accusation of the conscience, the risk of punishment, and even of being eliminated.

This fundamental option confers an ethical quality on the human path. If we opt for the good path, the small mistaken steps or blunders will not destroy the path and its direction. What really counts to the conscience and to The One who with justice judges all, is the fundamental option we make.

For this reason, the dominant tendency in Christian moral theology is to substitute the language of minor or mortal sins with another, more in keeping with this unity of the human path: fidelity or infidelity to the fundamental option. One’s actions must not be isolated and judged apart from the fundamental option. It is a question of capturing the basic attitude and the fundamental project that is reflected in actions, and unifies life’s direction. If one opts for the good, with constancy and fidelity, it will confer more or less goodness to the actions, in spite of the ups and downs that always occur but which will not destroy a good path. They will certainly pass through the severe clinic of God if they find pity for their wickedness.

There is no escape: we have to choose the path to build and how to follow it, knowing that «living is dangerous» (Guimarães Rosa). But we never do it alone. Multitudes walk with us, solidarians in the same destiny, accompanied by Someone named: “Emmanuel, God with us”.

The Sensation of Seeing the Earth fromthe Outside

Leonardo Boff1 comentário

The last centuries have witnessed countless discoveries: of continents, original peoples, species of living beings, galaxies, stars, the subatomic world, the original energies and recently, the Higgs particles, a kind of subtle fluid that fills the universe; the virtual particles that when touched, take on mass, and become stable. But we had not yet discovered the Earth as a planet, as our Common Home. We had to go beyond the Earth so as to see her from the outside, and then discover her and confirm the unity that is Earth-humanity.

That is the great legacy of the astronauts who were first able to see the Earth from outer space. They produce in us what has been called the Overview Effect, that is, «the effect of the vision from above». Frank White gathered very beautiful testimonies of the astronauts in his book Overview Effect (Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1987). Reading those testimonies impact us tremendously, and produce a feeling of great reverence, a true spiritual experience. Let’s read some.

Astronaut James Irwin said: «The Earth looks like a Christmas tree hung on the black backdrop of the universe; the further we go from her, the more she diminishes in size, until she is reduced to a small ball, more beautiful than anyone could imagine. That a living object so beautiful and so warm appears so fragile and delicate changes those who contemplate that beauty, because one starts to appreciate the creation of God and to discover the love of God». Another, Eugene Cernan, confessed: «I was the last man to set foot on the Moon, in December of 1972. From the lunar surface, I looked with reverential fear towards Earth, against a very dark background. What I saw was too beautiful to be grasped, too ordered and filled with intention to be the result of mere cosmic accident; one felt, deep inside, moved to praise God. God must exist, for having created that which I had the privilege to contemplate; the veneration and thankfulness surged spontaneously; for that the universe exists».

With fine intuition Joseph P. Allen, another astronaut, observed: «There was much discussion of the pros and cons of going to the Moon, but I heard no one say that we should go to the Moon in order to see the Earth from there, from the outside; that, after all, should have been the true reason for going to the Moon».

Through this singular experience, the human being awakens to the understanding that the human being and the Earth form a unity, and that this unity is part of a greater one, the solar unity, and this of another, still larger one, the galactic. This sends us to the whole universe, and the whole universe to the Mystery and from the Mystery to the Creator.

«From above», astronaut Cernan observed, «the barriers of skin color, religion and politics that divide the world here below cannot be seen». Everything is unified in one single planet, the Earth. Astronaut Salman al-Saud commented: «the first and the second day, we would point out our countries, on the third and fourth, our continents, and after the fifth day we were aware only of the Earth as a whole».

These testimonies convince us that in reality, Earth and Humanity form an indivisible whole. This is exactly what Isaac Asimov wrote in his New York Times article of October 9, 1982, on the 25th anniversary of the launching of Sputnik, which was the first to fly around the Earth. The title of the article was “Globalism:The Legacy of Sputnik”. And Asimov said: «into our reluctant minds, the vision that the Earth and Humanity form a unique entity is imposed». Russian Anatoly Berezovoy, who spent 211 days in space, affirmed the same thing. Effectively, we cannot put the Earth on one side, and humanity on the other. We form an organic and living whole. We humans are the part of the Earth that feels, thinks, loves, cares, and venerates.

From almost anywhere, contemplating the Earthly globe, the thought arises spontaneously that in spite of all the threats of destruction that we mount against Gaia, a good and beneficial future is somehow guaranteed. So much beauty and splendor cannot be destroyed. As the Christians would say: This Earth is penetrated by the Spirit and by the Cosmic Christ. Part of our humanity has already been made eternal by Jesus, and is in the heart of the Trinity. It will not be on the ruins of the Earth that God will complete the divine work. The Resurrected and His Spirit are pushing evolution towards its culmination.

A modern legend gives substance to this belief: «Once upon a time there was a Christian Greenpeace militant, who was visited in his dreams by resurrected Jesus, who invited him to walk in the garden. The militant accepted with enthusiasm. After walking for a long while, admiring the biodiversity in that little space, the militant asked: “Lord, when you walked the paths of Palestine, you once said that you would return one day in all your pomp and glory. Your return is being delayed too much! When will you in fact return at last, Lord?” After some moments of silence that seemed like an eternity, the Lord answered: “My dear brother, when my presence in the universe and in nature are as evident as the light that illuminates this garden; when my presence under your skin and in your heart are as real as my presence here now, when this presence of mine becomes flesh and blood in yourself, to the point that you will not need to think about it anymore, when you are so imbued with this truth that you will not need to ask insistently, as you are doing now… then, dear brother, those will be the signs that I have returned with all my pomp and glory.”»

Translation Melina Alfaro, alfaro_melina@yahoo.com.ar,
done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

Challenges of the new Forms of Cohabitation

Leonardo BoffDeixe um comentário

The mobility of modern society has opened up space for various forms of cohabitation. Besides the families-matrimony, formed within a socio-juridical and sacramental framework, we see ever more frequently families-couple (cohabitation and free unions), that are formed consensually, outside of the institutional framework, and that last as long as there is a couple. They give rise to the consensual non-conjugal family. The introduction of divorce has created single-parent families (a mother or father with children); multi-parent families (with children from previous marriages), as well as same sex unions (men or women), that in several countries have attained a legal framework that guarantees them stability and social recognition.

Let’s try to better understand these forms of cohabitation. A Brazilian specialist, Marco Antônio Fetter, founder of the first University of the Family, in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, with all its academic degrees, defines the family as: «a group of persons with common objectives and strong affective bonds and ties, each with a defined role, where the roles of father, mother, children and siblings naturally appear» (See: http://www.unifan.com.br).

The family has undergone a great transformation since the introduction of birth control, and techniques of preserving fertility, which are now incorporated into the culture as something normal, in spite of the opposition of several Churches.

Conjugal sexuality has gained more intimacy and spontaneity, because, with such means and family planning, it is freed from unforeseen and unwanted pregnancy. Children cease to be the inevitable result of sexual relations, and are chosen by mutual agreement.

The emphasis on sexuality as personal realization has facilitated the appearance of forms of cohabitation that are not properly matrimony. An expression of this are the free and consensual unions with no commitment other than the mutual realization of the couple or the cohabitation of same sex couples.

Such practices, as new as they may be, must also include an ethical and spiritual perspective. It is important to be certain that they are expressions of mutual love and trust. Where there is love, a Christian reading of the phenomenon shows that something is occurring that has to do with God, because God is love (1 John 4,12-16). Thus, there should be no prejudice or discrimination. Instead, there must be respect, and openness to understanding these facts and also to place them before God. If the persons assume their relationship with responsibility they should not be denied spiritual relevance. An atmosphere is created that helps overcome any temptation to promiscuity, and strengthens the fidelity and stability that are the fruits of all relationships. The immutable nucleus of the family is the affection, caring of one for the other and the desire to be together, being also open, when possible, to the procreation of new lives.

If this is so, besides the institutional character of the family, one must particularly consider its relational character. It is important to see the complex interplay of the relationships that occur between the couple. In those relationships there is life, expressions of love, of fidelity, of encounter and happiness, in a word, the permanent side appears. The institutional side is socially legitimate and assumes very distinct forms, according to the culture, Roman, Celtic. Chinese, Hindu, etc.

Cross-cultural analysis has shown that when there is a strong and healthy social-familiar capital, it gives rise to a high degree of trust in the other, and there is less violence and more social participation. When this social capital is diluted, little by little crises appear and the affective relationship unravels.

The issue is to overcome certain moralities that help no one, that prejudge the different forms of family or cohabitation, because of one detail, and makes us lose the values that are certainly present, and sincerely lived before God.

The main object of Church doctrine on the family is to strengthen the human and moral values that must be lived there. It is that way, for instance, in the Apostolic Letter, Familiaris Consortio (1981) and in the Letter to the Families (1994) by John Paul II. Both documents emphatically affirm that «the family is a community of persons founded on love and animated by love, whose origin and goal is the divine Us”.

The relational dimension curiously predominates over the institutional in the Familiaris Consortio (1981). It defines the family as «a collection of inter-personal relationships –conjugal relationships, paternity/maternity, filiation, fraternity– through which each person is introduced to the human family».

What would become of the family and its members if the inter-subjective relationships of affection and caring, the language of enchantment and dream, did not burn within them? Without that motor, that continuously animates our path, without that niche of sensitivity, no one could tolerate the inherent difficulties of all inter-subjective relationship, or the limitations of the human condition.

These values carry the family beyond itself. The dream is precisely that, beginning with family values, in its different forms, there will arise the family of school, family of work, family of community, family of nation, and family of humanity, finally arriving at the family of Earth, the final springboard to the family of God.

Translation of Melina Alfaro, alfaro_melina@yahoo.com.ar,
done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.