Metaphysics as a Part of What Happens in Our Daily Lives

Man as a thinking being, although we are a finite being, we are guided to think and embrace the whole of reality. The main concern in metaphysics is to understand all the realities of living things by understanding the total number of things that can be understood and discovering the highest points of reality. However, this effort will be of no value without a person who has a rational gift to know everything that must be known about existence, who is the only being endowed with such a gift.

It is man’s nature that is anxious, he is always curious and seeking knowledge in every faucet. In this condition, he has the drive to search for the highest level of knowledge by capturing the comprehensive reality that he knows and understanding the meaning of his existence. That man’s existence is not just for himself, but for other beings too, in other words, when humans exist, they are always bound by this fact that they have the right to feel 'home' with their entire true identity community. Therefore, other organisms, including humans, are in a relationship.

Since human beings and all other living things are in a relative sense, it is the human responsibility to maintain that relationship with the feeling of 'staying home' in the universe because he is the only thing that is gifted with the right reason and will. But how can men feel that they are 'at home' together with the living community?

Although humans are finite beings, we came to understand enough to reality. We know that our journey in this empirical world is in the great circle of travel and someday we return to the One who created and give life to everything.

The Idea of a Being

Being is still a mystery because it is half-light and half-shadow and also ambiguous. In discovering being we need to penetrate intellectually into something finding and revealing the basic types of existence that are normal for everyone. In expanding the horizon of the drive to know that it knows what the recoil exceeds. The horizon is the discovery of its limitations. The criterion for reality is that what is real is something that can be done by itself and it is. The center or source of one's own actions. Things that manifest or reveal their existence to each other by their actions. Being is a radical doing. It is like energy where it is the root or cause of all other doing.

The Self-Identity in Change

The unity of being is endangered by the variability of a being, all beings in our experience undergo changes, and it is inevitable for a being. The principle of self-identity is not static but a constant dynamic activity. It maintains its identity by constantly and actively assimilating the world it encounters. It is affected by the process of change but it has a dynamic power that maintains its identity within the process of change.

The Great Circle of Being

The inner dynamism of all beings moves in a great circular journey. It is a total journey of all finite beings: the journey out means, exodus, and the journey back, reditus. All finite beings belong as members to the one great community of real existents. Man as a rational being the one who is conscious to the whole process is the mediator between the material world and to God himself.

The first phase is called exodus, the vast multitude of finite creatures pour out from their infinite source in the act of creation. God acts as the Ultimate Efficient Cause, the one who brings all things into existence. The journey of all created being out from its Ultimate Source or as what it is called the exodus. This journeying out of all being from the Source who is conceived to be God. It is the journey of the many beings who are finite in nature but originated from the one who is Infinite in nature. Human beings who is a finite beings has limited participation in its own way. The exodus is a journey of a community of beings wherein by nature of each being who are finite are able to communicate and the interrelated world of beings.

As the doctrine of common participation states, “being is the act of belonging”. In other words, the unity that occurs is manifested through the act of belongingness. This act of belongingness can lead man into an awareness of goodness that is both good to body and soul that man is not isolated or alone. Having a sense of isolation man thinks that he does not belong anywhere. In the process of its journey, the finite beings participate with the One Infinite Source.

The second phase is called reditus, no sooner are creatures launched into existence and action then their Source begins to draw them back to itself by the pull of the good. The journey of all created being back to its Ultimate Source or as what it is called the reditus. The great journey of a man in the physical realm will come to an end for man is a finite being. Man is a finite being that is subjected to an end. In his journey of going back to the Ultimate source, man is expected that he has done his part of taking care not only for himself alone but also taking care of other existents or being.

The completion of man’s journey is reliant on in the creativity of man upon his stay or upon the journeying process. This said the journey of going back of a man is the pull of the good in each of the being. By seeking the fullness of its own perfection in each individual the inner act of pulling the good in every individual. Coming from this goodness the passages of involvement of each being acts in the same manner as to the Ultimate Source of goodness which is the original act of existence.

Reflecting on the image of the universe as the journey of all beings, both flowing and returning home to the Infinite Source, we can assert that as human beings we have the duty and responsibility and not just for our own existence but also to other beings who has existence. In this sense, therefore man has to value his own life and also the value and give value to the creation. It is right to give value to the world for man has profited in his living through using in achieving one’s own desire. Hence, the true meaning of human existence is to be one with the world, which must have a profound feeling and a community that has the whole universe.

Conclusion

In fact, metaphysics is a part of what happens in our daily lives. It is the essence of our existence. We acknowledge that there are changes in every life. That his identity remains intact despite changes Humans are the rational creatures and the highest creatures in the creation of the creator. Therefore, we have the right to use our intelligence to understand the creation created by the creator and live life to the fullest

Insight

As I journey in this world I am reminded that I am guided by the loving presence of our Creator and reminded that I am created in His image and likeness. My journey in this empirical world is to dwell in the creation of the Ultimate Source, to have recognized the richness and wonders of His creation. Thus, I am to understand and live in the reality, and that me as a finite being is expected to go back to the presence of the Infinite Source the Creator of all beings, which is our true home.

Reference

1. Clarke, W, Norris. Central Problems of Metaphysics. Edited by Nemesio S. Que, S.J. Quezon City: Office of the Research and Publications, Loyola Schools, Ateneo de Manila University, 2001.