Vaclav Havel

I was saddened to hear that Vaclav Havel

died on December 18.

In a small way he contributed to my

spiritual journey.

In 1989 I read the letters he wrote

from prison

to his wife, Olga.

(The book is titled Letters to Olga.)

He writes about his belief in

                                      a ‘voice’

that calls to us—

it calls us to ‘responsibility.’

Havel is reluctant to use the word ‘God’

as the source of the Voice.

He chooses different terminology

based on the philosophy of

Phenomenology (Husserl)

and Existential Ontology (Martin Heidegger).

Heavily influenced by the Czech philosopher

Jan Patocka (who was a student of H. and H.).

Havel says the Voice is the voice of Being.

The reality of Being is not separate from us;

we participate in it.

With its infinite memory, omnipresent mind, and

infinite heart, Being calls out to us,

and we encounter it as “a persona l face”

that turns toward us.

Havel writes:

For me, this ‘someone’ who calls is “the highest and utterly unequivocal authority in all moral questions…someone eternal, who through himself makes me eternal as well.”

Life, he says, is a dialogue

with this ‘partner’ –

this infinite source

of life’s meaning.

In 2007 I read Havel’s ‘memoir’ of sorts.

He calls it a ‘collage.’

It is titled To the Castle and Back.

At one point he speaks of his ‘credo’

by saying:

I think that the moral order stands above the legal, political, and economic orders, and that these latter orders should derive from the former, and not be techniques for getting around its imperatives. And I believe that this moral order has a metaphysical anchoring in the infinite and the eternal.

The moral order Havel refers to

is the Order of Being.

Just as Paul Tillich spoke of God as

the Ground of Being,

I think Havel is also referring to God

when he uses the Being terminology.

What a large and all-encompassing picture

of God!

To understand God as Being-Itself

has supported me in my spiritual journey.

To think of God as a Being

                   leaves one with too many

          theological glitches.

But God as Being-Itself offers up a picture

of majestic reality permeating life

with immanent grace.

The fact that Being calls out to us

sounds very Biblical.

In fact, that is what the Bible is: namely,

a Book with a Voice that dialogues

with us.

The Book itself is not divine;

but the Voice that speaks through

the narrative of the Book

is divine and eternal.

There are other sounds and noises

which also come out of that Book.

We must ignore them

and listen only for the eternal Voice—

the voice of Being.

Vaclav Havel, the first President of

Czechoslovakia after the fall of Communism,

was a powerful spiritual voice

for his people

and indeed for all humanity.

He brought integrity to governance;

a moral dimension to leadership;

and spirituality to culture.

For me, his writing gave the gift of

a large spirituality

and a strong sense of life’s call

to freedom and responsibility.

Thank God for Vaclav Havel’s being

among us.