The following is a timely article entitled "Going in Search", written by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. It is one in a short series of reflections called, "Meditations at Vacation Time."
The reference to "hopelessly jammed" roads may not apply as much to Northwestern Ontario as it does to other areas, but I'm sure we can still appreciate the point. Enjoy!
Going in Search
One of the remarkable facets of our modern civilization is the reappearance of the nomadic element: every weekend entire columns of automobiles stream out of the towns, only to return to their points of departure on Sunday evening, along roads that are hopelessly jammed. When it is vacation time, this phenomenom becomes a veritable mass migration; an entire nation seems to be on the road. In the so-called highly developed countries, the roads are among people's most frequented locations, and the money currently invested in them is an indication of the state of mind that causes people to become restless wanderers. What is the reason for it?
Clearly, people do not really feel at home in their houses and apartments. Many of them get out of their "home" as quickly and as often as they can. Their house seems to be more an expression of the prison of everyday life than a place of security where one is glad to be. We can suggest, therefore, that this escape to four wheels indicates a yearning to throw off the constraints of the workaday world and to embrace freedom, the open spaces, an entirely different milieu, a place where, at last, one can be oneself in creativity and freedom. This regular mass migration on the part of industrial society thus expresses something very profound about man and human nature. He cannot be completely at home among his possessions. He is driven by an unrest, yearning for something more, something bigger. He is looking for a freedom that transcends the freedoms and fulfillments of settled life.
Cannot we see here somthing of the truth of what the Bible says about man being a pilgrim in this world, unable completely to find a home in it? Surely we can discern here something of the restlessness of heart of which Augustine speaks - Augustine, who had been a restless seeker, unsettled and driven about, until he finally grasped why nothing was enough for him. Today's nomad may feel that the automobile (and auto is the Greek word for 'self') is an expression of his freedom and self-determination, something that is irreplaceable quite apart from its functional usefulness. But does it give him selfhood and freedom, or does it not in fact force him back into the rat race?
So our vacation habits could lead us to take a good look at ourselves and encourage us to embark on a more momentous adventure than we generally envisage. Surely the journey which is really worthy of man is that which takes him out of everyday constrictions in the search for the Eternal, the search for the face of God, and hence enables him to transcend all earthly limitations. And might this not result in man discovering both freedom and a sense of being at home?
