EXILED IN A NEW EXISTENCE

                                            

In our book The Man in Search of Himself - Reflections on the Human Condition in the Parable of the Prodigal Son we defend the thesis that the Fall has altered the original nature of man, corrupting the time / space and body / spirit planes that characterize his being. It alienated the human being from himself and led him into exile into a new existence. Both Adam and the prodigal son imposed a self-exile by eating the forbidden fruit and leaving the paternal house. In this new condition, separated from God and the life he had, the human being is only a prisoner in time, in the world, in the body and in himself.

In contemplating the universe, the man notices himself a stranger in It. Created to manage It (Genesis 1:28; 2:15, 19, 20), he was endowed with great knowledge about It, but now he knows nothing. The lightning, the thunder, and the immensity of the sea frighten him. The change in his being, caused by the Fall, made the human being feel banished in this world. Albert Camus, a French philosopher, in reflecting on this question, said: "... all the science of this earth will not tell me anything to assure me that this world belongs to me" [1].

Far from God, far from himself, man has created a world to which he has become enslaved. Over time, he built social systems to meet his needs. Then, some structures such as religious, political, educational, legal, and economic emerged and these structures gave rise to a "truth" that shapes and formats human thought and praxis, giving a certain meaning to life.

Today, these structures hinder their freedom and autonomy, reducing him to the mere component of a great gear. Suffocated, then, he realizes himself as a person in the accumulation of goods, in academic titles and in the performance of roles that give him relevance. But when he looks at himself knows that see only an image and not his true self. Only the "Truth" will free him, for that which emerges from this system does not respond to his deepest questions. 

Saint Augustine, in his inner struggle for self-understanding, revealed the prison of man in a self he does not understand. Anguished by his internal crisis, he surrendered himself to pleasures and pleasurable activities as a relief, for he continued to see himself as "a place of unhappiness, where he could not remain and from where he could not depart". In his heart, he wondered: "Where would my heart flee from my heart? Where would I flee from myself? "[2].

Kierkegaard also spoke of this strange self living in man. He wrote: "Man always desires to free himself from his self, from the self that is ... the embarrassment of being this self that does not want to be, is its torment. For he can not free himself. "[3] Paul, long before, spoke of this internal inconsistency with other words: “for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing."(Romans 7: 18-19).

Albert Camus, French atheist philosopher, described the human condition very well. However, the author of the present work understands that the reality described by Camus was only configured after the Fall. The philosopher said: "When I try to capture this self that I assure myself, when I try to define it and summarize it, it is only water that flows between my fingers ... the gap between the certainty that I have of my existence and the content that I try to give this security will never be overcome. I will forever be strange to myself ... "[4].

In fact, what these thinkers are saying is that there is, in man's heart, a feeling that he is lost. The things to which the human being clings, in search of meaning, are like sand in the wind. They do not support or satisfy the great questions of human life. For this reason, the human being spends all his existence on a journey in search of himself.

Antônio Maia – M.Div.

Copyright

1.  CAMUS, Albert. O Mito de Sísifo. Edições BestBolso, Rio de Janeiro, 2014, p.32

2.  AGOSTINHO, Santo. Confissões. Ed Vozes, Petrópolis-RJ, 2011, p.84

3.  KIERKEGAARD, Soren. O Desespero Humano. Ed Vozes, Petrópolis – RJ, 2010, p.25

4.  CAMUS, Albert. O Mito de Sísifo. Edições BestBolso, Rio de Janeiro, 2014, p.32