Journey Home: Finding God in Me (& All Things)

By Santiago Rodriguez, S.J.

Home is where the heart belongs. Being at home is about finding out where our hearts feel at peace, where we experience joy and transformation. For me, this very exercise of discernment has been my quest for God. For the last 13 years, it has been an intentional search. The adventure to find God in my life has been nothing short of an odyssey, or a quest for the Holy Grail. It meant my preparation for this expedition would lead me to God. When I set out, I knew that if the quest leads me to attain God, it would mean transformation and eternal life.

This story is like that of every eager and aspiring person who has set out to find the meaning of Life and the fountain of Truth. My intent to find God has configured me into Odysseus – leaving home to wander the open seas – while becoming a stranger, a guest in a world he did not fully understand. At first, the journey was about all the things I would have to learn, to acquire or to give up in order to experience the Divine. It was as much about learning as it was about unlearning. I had to unlearn unhealthy behaviours and habits. I had to relearn to accept myself.

Slow Down: Save a Life

By Santiago Rodriguez, S.J.

In the wake of the VIA Rail train crash in Burlington, Ontario, the authorities have discovered that the train was going four times faster than the allowed speed. The train was supposed to slow down before it switched tracks, but it never let up after the train left the station. Unfortunately, this accident claimed the lives of 3 people and many were seriously injured. This tragic incident can teach us something about our habit of living in the fast lane. If we go faster than we should, if we try to juggle more than we can, we will also derail. We will crash.

We need to slow down. We have to take care of ourselves. Lent is precisely the time to heed this invitation. In my last post I commented on Jesus’ desire that we might live life to the fullest. This does not mean we need to do more. We do not need to busy ourselves in order to achieve more for ourselves and for others. We need to take the time to be. After all, we are human beings, and not human doings. In Ignatian spirituality, we learn to live for the greater glory of God. This is captured by the Latin word magis – not Magi, as we call the wise men from the East – but the more. What more can I do for God? This translates not as ‘what else can do I do?’ but ‘how can I do it better?’

The Quest for the Real: Learning from the Humanity of Jesus

By Santiago Rodriguez, S.J.

“What is your quest?”

In the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the knights of the Round Table are asked of this question before they are allowed to cross the Bridge of Death, in order to continue their quest for the Holy Grail. Then God appears to Arthur and his knights as he avoids entering Camelot; they are subsequently given the sacred task to seek the Holy Grail. As God tells Arthur, “that is your purpose in life.”

Just like Arthur, we are on a quest. We are in pursuit of meaning and purpose. Our lives are a quest for the Real. The Real is that which is authentic and True. We constantly desire to have an experience of truth, goodness, beauty and love. Our sacred task is to pursue and enjoy the Real.

It is Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life that we desire. He is the Real. Our sacred task is to seek Him, draw closer to Him, love Him and serve Him. The quest of our lives is the deepening of our bond with Christ. As we encounter Him in our daily lives, we bring to Him the questions in our hearts and in our minds: ‘Why am I here?’, ‘What is the purpose of my life?’, ‘What does it mean to be human?’. The answer of these questions are all found in Jesus the Christ. We find the meaning of our humanity in His humanity.