By Larry Pesavento
Manhood demands a journey. Manhood demands a test, not testosterone. Manhood does not come automatically, growing as the body grows. This journey of manhood is perilous and painful. The outcome cannot be planned or controlled, and is shrouded in paradox. The journey must be done with a man’s eyes open, consciously and continually choosing a path that leads away from the familiar and the secure.
The journey is a psychospiritual one that demands modern man’s attention. Society’s and the world’s survival depends on men consciously taking up this mission toward inner wisdom and purpose. Men who do not take the journey are dangerous men. Burned out men are dangerous men.
The journey of manhood begins when a man starts to hear the voice of wisdom within, the elder voice, and chooses to listen. Most men do not listen because they are not taught to expect that voice to speak. Elders without can trigger the elder voice within, or prepare a man to hear. Most men do not listen because their olders are not elders. Instead of elders without, men are without elders.
Men are taught to listen to patriarchs who have a message opposed to elders. Patriarchs substitute outer power for inner strength. Without the strength and wisdom of the elder, a man is left to the unconscious forces of the village, thinking he is on the right path to manhood, thinking he is on the right mission.
I once had a wonderful theology professor, Fr. John Donne, who said that a man spends the first half of his life struggling with the mystery of sex, and the last half struggling with the mystery of death. Men in this culture often get stuck in the misery of sex, instead of its mystery. They never learn to struggle with the mystery of death, which is the mystery of initiation.