Into the Wild

Just a note before this post. Most seminarians have already started their Christmas break but mine starts today. WOOHOO! So you won't hear from me for a couple weeks as I'll be outside the country, Italy that is, for a bit. But with all that has been contributed in the past couple weeks, it looks like I won't even really be missed. I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas and may you come to know Christ more deeply than ever as we look to the birth of our Savior. AMDG.

I recently watched the movie, "Into the Wild", which ended up reminding me of another film, "Into Great Silence". For those who have never watched the first, it's a real life story about a young man fresh out of college and disillusioned both with his family and the world. He sets off on a mission of self-discovery, in my opinion, and discovers so much about who he is and what life is really about through a series of encounters with others. It is also interesting that much of what he uncovers comes through others, through this sense that we need other people.

The second film is a documentary on the life of Carthusian monks who live in the French Alps isolated from the rest of the world. They spend most of their time in prayer or in manual work, only spending an hour a week, I believe, talking freely with their fellow monks. These men flee the world and they too are searching. In fact, they've also found something.

What am I getting at? There is this great search within the human person for something that matters, for the purpose of life, for some sense of fulfillment. We are searching. I've discovered this so quickly in Italy where I have run into people who have simply left everything and moved to Italy because they just want to do something else - they want to find something else. It also reminds me of this man in Australia who put his entire life up for sale and decided to move away. Searching...people are searching.

It's amazing to hear the story of the young man because he moves across the country towards Alaska. There is a sense that he has to go somewhere else to discover what he is looking for. Likewise with people I've met here and even friends from home, they have to move away from where they are to discover what they are looking for. But I think the Carthusian monks have something so wise to say. That it does not really matter where you go while you search. The search everyone undertakes in life is a search for God, for his face in the world, it is a search for his son Jesus Christ. In the end, it is a search for what truly fulfills, love, ultimate divine infinite love that Christ showed on the cross and which we desire to know. I have a feeling that this is something like what is in the film The Human Experience. Sadly I have not had a chance to watch it yet. But this searching continues.

I think this is one thing that always excites me about ministry now and in the future. I am gifted with the opportunity, through having received faith, to give Christ to others. As people search and come up empty, I can in some small way point them towards the only love that fulfills. Because in the end, we crave this love. We crave this divine love of the Creator who made us in love and for love and calls us back to our original purpose to be love as well.