By Jedeiah Esteves
In an attempt to describe what wholeness is, let’s first say what it is not. The fact that we are discussing/contemplating wholeness means that we are not whole. Faced with the living circumstances of being incomplete, unwhole, fragmented, torn, etc…, how can we ever expect to achieve this perfection (the ancient notion of completion)? If we have knowledge of this perfection - mainly from our imperfections - then do we not in a sense possess a fragment of it in us?
Perhaps becoming whole is possible because the seed of wholeness is fundamentally rooted in our very being, and the temporal nature of our existence propels us toward a mature image of ourselves while this mature image - the whole - is always connected to the seedlike and immature until the proper time when one actively engages on the journey to reconcile that which is with that one ought to be. Wholeness is achieved through one’s state of being. Because a human person possesses an immortal soul, we have some very limited knowledge of eternity, the destination. Hence when we choose to begin this journey and orient ourselves towards the destination, the destination engages us, changes our state of being, and gives us miniscule drops of eternity within time.
As St. Augustine of Hippo said “you have made it so O’ Lord, that we shall never rest until we truly rest in Thee.” To be whole/complete/perfected is to be at rest. If a person fails to recognize that he has an extemporaneous destination and a temporal journey, then his state of being will not be elevated and wholeness will not be manifested nor achieved in this lifetime.