Life Is The Struggle To Be Itself
By DONALD DeMARCO
A friend of mine, on turning 80, told me that from that point on she was not going to do anything she did not want to do. It was her declared emancipation proclamation from unnecessary work. I understood full well what she was saying. She lived an active and productive life. Perhaps it was time for her to take it easy, to eat, sleep, and be merry, but avoid anything that looked like work.
It is a temptation, however, and one that, if employed, would sap the strength of life. We have all felt this temptation, and without becoming octogenarians. We are derived from nothingness and are tempted to go back to this nirvana. But we are created by God who wants us to be all we can be. All the gifts He has lavished upon us come with the need to struggle.
The ultimate example of doing something that one is inclined not to do appears in the Passion of Christ. In the Garden of Gethsemani, He prayed these poignant words: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will” (Matt. 26:42). God is not asking us to accept the agony of the Cross. But He does command us to pick up our cross daily. In this regard He is commanding us to overcome inertia. Martin Luther King, Jr., obedient to this command, said: “Human progress is neither automatic not inevitable…. Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.”
Christians, especially, should strive to overcome the natural inertia that bids them to do nothing. Students do not want to read, children do not want to make their beds, and seniors do not want to sweep the floor. No one is eager to do dishes, clean house, darn socks, put things away, or take out the garbage. Yet, we all must do these things, trifles as they may appear to be, that we are reluctant to do if catastrophes are to be avoided.
“All life is the struggle, the effort to be itself,” declared José Ortega y Gasset in The Revolt of the Masses. The masses, he pointed out, are particularly prone to seeking a life of comfort with few demands placed on them. Nonetheless, we need struggles to awaken us to the abilities we have and to mobilize us to action. We cannot realize who we are in the depths of our being without accepting the various struggles that come our way. The unencumbered life may be attractive, but it is sterile and unproductive.
Pope Pius XII stated the matter clearly, not only for Catholics, but for everyone in his Easter Message of Peace (April 9, 1939): “For work is not only, for every man, a means of decent livelihood, but it is the means through which all those manifold powers and faculties with which nature, training, and art have endowed the dignity of the human personality, find their necessary expression.”
It is a human tragedy that our God-given gifts remain dormant and undeveloped because we disdained struggle. Nothing worthwhile has its genesis in lassitude. William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, knew well, the value of struggle that embraced difficulty: “No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown.”
The distinguished novelist Somerset Maugham once stated that his secret of success was to do two things each day that he did not want to do, namely get up in the morning and go to bed at night. Most of us can relate to that bromide. We need motivation to get up and get to work. We need discipline to call it a day and get some sleep. It is so easy to be sluggish and so difficult to be vigorous. At the end of a productive day, however, we can enjoy a peaceful slumber.
A civilization is built on the willingness of people to accept struggle. In struggling, they discover the inner resources that gave them a rebirth of life. Those who shun struggle and opt for convenience are the barbarians who oppose what a civilization requires. Writing requires a great deal of struggling. The great poet Virgil was known to have spent an entire day struggling to find the right word. For the distinguished Norwegian playwright, Henrik
Ibsen: “To live is to war with trolls in heart and soul. To write is to sit in judgment on oneself.”
For T.S. Eliot, writing “is one kind of agony while you are writing, and another kind when you aren’t.” Nonetheless, the struggles that these great writers accepted and endured led to masterpieces of prose and poetry that contributed much to civilization.
Auguste Renoir suffered from severe arthritis in his hands. When he was asked why he willingly accepted the torment he experienced in painting, he said that his art will last, but the pain will not. This attitude is present in all human beings who achieve something of importance, whether it is in art, education, politics, science, or in just being a more fully alive person who enjoys life on a higher level than what the masses experience.
The Cross should be a reminder for all Christians that struggle and suffering can lead to a better life. In fact, it can lead to a Resurrection.