Adrian Aly M.

Chio
162263
4 AB PH
TH 151 LT #1
Looking into the idea of the human person, we come to realize that part of how God
made us is that we, as human beings, are relational. This entails that as a species, we are
inclined to move towards others, in such a way that we form a relationship with them. This
does not necessarily mean that we are inclined to be in constant communication with others
during most of our lifetime, in such a way that we dedicate no time for ourselves. Rather, it
means that part of our becoming human is realizing that for us to be fully human, we must
embrace the fact that we are beings of communion.
Consider this: our thrownness into this world is what allows for us to exist within the
society that shapes us. Though we have no control over where we are placed upon birth—we
do have the freedom to make our own choices that will determine how we live our lives. This
then, gives us the ability to choose for ourselves. However, one must consider that in doing
so, we do not merely just choose for ourselves as our actions impact others as well. This then,
is what it means to be a being of communion. Through our deliberate choices and actions, we
are in communion with others. This is not limited to just our actions however, but also
through our interaction, and our way of living. Perhaps, the perfect example of one who was
in communion with others is through the example of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Through his ministry, Christ was able to go to the peripheries, and expanded his
horizons through his apostles and followers. Christ, as both human and divine, was able to
encapsulate the essence of being a being of communion. By his action and interaction with
others, Christ in himself, was able to progress towards the realization of his communal being
as being the source of love itself. Through his passion, death, and resurrection, Christ was
able to overcome death and join the Father in heaven. Going back, we recall now that the
source of love itself, being God, is what motivates us as individuals to go forth and live
within our community. However, what does it mean that life is a progressive movement
towards the realization of this communion with the source of love itself? Recall that we were
thrown into this world without our own consent. We do, however, have that freedom that
helps us make more deliberate choices as we go along. This is when the progressive
movement towards the realization of this communion with the source of love itself enters. Fr.
Troisfontaines discusses that we are becoming free. This presupposes that we are not
completely free but rather, are slowly easing up into this freedom that we possess. This
means that as we slowly progress through life, we are becoming more and more free.
I would argue that who I am now is much freer than who I was years ago. This is
because as I grow, I also allow myself to accept and learn from my communal nature.
Through my interaction with others, and through their interaction with me, I can learn and
grow beyond who I was before. As such, I progress towards the goal of being completely
free. This is then realized upon the finality of death—where we face our final few moments
of mortality before we become one with God. Through our death, we are finalized in such a
way that our mortality becomes subject to the love from those who we are in communion
with. Therefore oftentimes, death is grieved by our loved ones, and why the idea of suicide is
one that is taboo. Death becomes a final testament to our being human, and suicide affirms
that through our freedom, we have the choice of ending our own lives. Death, however, is
what unites us and brings us back to the Creator. This, I believe, is what the final fulfillment
of our progression towards love is—going back to the source which is God.
As such, life’s progressive movement toward the realization of our communion with
the source of love itself is one that tells the story of the human life—how our communion
with others is what makes us whole, and how this communion is what makes us live our full
lives as humans. Through the realization of the self as a being of communion, we find
ourselves put in a position of vulnerability, but we also find ourselves in a position of
strength, in such a way that our strength can be rooted in our own relationships with others.
Thus, by living a life of communion with others, we follow and parallel Christ—the final
source of love. It is through this life we live with others that we both learn and grow. It is
through this learning that we progress as human beings, and that this is what ultimately leads
us to actualizing our potential to be fully human. Through this, we then find ourselves facing
death, and as we face our ultimate end, we find ourselves to have progressed far beyond the
point of our when we first started. Ultimately, we allow ourselves to finally progress towards
the source of love—and it is through God that we find ourselves as having lived a life of
community and love.