WEEK 4. The Journey(s) of Life

This week will concentrate on some of the varied metaphoric images of life as a journey (usually toward something and away from some flawed/fallen place). These include ideas of

From the expulsion from Eden to the establishment of the modern state of Israel and its present political context, Judaeo-Christian mythology/ideology has focused on returning to and reestablishing lost or fallen ideals of ordered existence and individual and social identity.

The literature, political thought, and theology of the Middle Ages constantly invoke such ideas and images. At their base, these are, like laws and rules, responses to the realization that the human condition is a condition of absence, separation, and loss.

What has been lost is the human share in the ordered cosmos of God, and we are in search of ways to ensure our return to that state, and not all of it can be postponed to the afterlife.

Like the Rule of St. Benedict, these journeys imagine and promise a way to begin a return "home."

The patterns of journeying are many and varied, including:

the (apparently) intentional "wandering" actively embraced by the Old English speakers of "The Wanderer" and "The Seafarer"--the "paths of exile" seem an almost "natural" condition;

Mention Irish "saints" who put themselves to sea in rudderless/oarless boats--emblematizing the fundamental human condition and abandoning their will (like the monks in Benedict's Rule) to divine providence.
?? Some association with St. Brendan's voyage--to hermit (or monastic) settlements in Iceland, Greenland, and North America

Against these "aimless" wanderings can be set a variety of more purposeful and directed journeys:

  1. the pilgrim to Jerusalem, Compostela or Canterbury--or, like Dante's pilgrim,to Paradise
  2. the crusaders setting out to restore the "Holy Land" to Christian control and "recovering" relics, symbols of the Christian past; or
  3. the searcher for a Holy Grail (or Lost Ark) -- which may seem reminiscent of aspects of "The Wanderer" and "The Seafarer."

Exodus: Exiles and Returns

The Old Testament repeatedly imagines the human condition as one of "exile," a temporary separation from the true "home."

The exile occurs, the "home" is lost, because of some sin/crime: Adam and Eve; the Israelites in Egypt; the Babylonian Captivity; the Roman Empire.

The Images of the lost "Home" vary:

So the image of life as a journey becomes a prominent one, a metaphor which takes varying shapes and meanings.

cf. "The Wanderer" and "The Seafarer"
Dante's "nel mezzo del cammin"
  • from earthly life to an afterlife.
    • cf. the subsequent journey in Commedia
    Everyman -- death/dying as a journey

    This can even take literary form:

    And it can express itself in theological terms:

    or the political:

    Everyman

    Sacraments -- all "instituted" by Christ

    1. Eucharist (Holy Communion) -- sacrament of the Last Supper
    2. bread and wine become (through words of priest at Mass) Body and Blood of Christ
    3. Baptism -- sacrament of initiation (cf. penitential washings of John the Baptist)
    4. water washes away Original Sin
    5. Penance -- cleansing individual of sins (mortal/venial)
    6. Contrition (of heart) -- sorrow for sin
    7. Confession (of mouth) -- verbal and specific articulation of the sins
    8. Satisfaction (of deed) -- the "penance" assigned by confessor
    9. Absolution (of guilt) granted by priest
    10. Holy Orders -- ordination of men to the priesthood
    11. oil/chrism
    12. Confirmation -- confirming adult membership in Christian Community
    13. oil/chrism; Holy Spirit
    14. Extreme Unction -- anointing of the sick/dying -- the Last Rites
    15. oil/chrism (usu. accompanied by Penance and Eucharist)
    16. Matrimony -- blessing/witnessing of marriage vows.
    17. only case where the unordained individuals are the "ministers" of the sacrament.
    18. a late entry into the defined sacraments.

    Pilgrimage: The Search for the Holy and the Rejection of the Sinful/Earthly

    The Idea of the Holy: eternity (and divinity) IN time/ON earth

    incarnation--the divine in the mundane/human

    Searchers for the Lost Grail

    The unknown/mysterious object of desire/grace--not all the searches are for known/locatable things.

    The idea of the holy is mysterious and distant--perhaps always beyond human attainment. The popularity and proliferation of shrines/relics, perhaps, encourages others to posit a more indefinite, less attainable goal.

    (Early ascetic views are compatible with this--e.g. "The Wanderer"; Simeon Stylites; hermits; et al.)

    Arthurian expropriations and the Arthur story itself