A Catholic existentialist philosopher named Gabriel Marcel is not generally well-known.
Yet, many of his ideas are captivating. Gabriel Marcel was born in Paris on December 7, 1889.
His mother died when he was four years old. One of the things Marcel wrote about was how, although his mother had died, he always felt her presence and influence in his life. Fifty-four years later, after a 38-year happy marriage, his wife died. Marcel again wrote of how he continued to sense his wife’s presence along with that of his mother. They were gone, yet still with him.
During the First World War, Marcel served with the Red Cross, and it was in connection with his work there that he experienced some of the most life-changing encounters of his life. His job with the Red Cross was to act as liaison for the families of soldiers who were missing in action. He had to try to find out what might have happened to soldiers classified as “missing.” He was constantly besieged by distraught relatives – wives, parents, etc. He spent endless days trying to obtain some jot of information about a missing soldier so that he might be able to offer some glimmer of hope to an apprehensive family. Too often, Marcel was dispatched to announce to the next of kin the death of a dearly loved one. The “missing” soldiers became real human beings to Marcel, and he sensed how terrible were impersonal generalities. He saw how the soldier’s questing loved ones were undergoing one of the most traumatic experiences allotted to human beings.
Marcel’s approach to philosophy is sometimes called “Phenomenology.” This is an approach which begins with a concrete individual experience and tries to describe the experience in greater depth.
Marcel writes about various significant events in human life. For example, Marcel reflects on truth, and speaks eloquently of how truth is holy, and makes demands upon us. Marcel spoke of how we are obliged to testify in a court of law if we hold a particle of light that would otherwise remain hidden. We must manifest the truth which is known to us and allow it to affect the situation at hand.
Fidelity occupies a central place in Marcel’s thought. Marcel underlines Nietzsche’s saying that “a human being is the only being who can make promises.” For Marcel, fidelity is the foremost expression of love for another. Fidelity is maintaining presence no matter what. A faithful friend is someone who does not fail us. We feel that he is with me. Fidelity is distinguished from constancy or obligation, which can be devoid of love.
Marcel points out that marriage is the place that most involves Fidelity. When one makes the marriage vows, s/he assumes an obligation, gives to the other a claim over oneself; one binds oneself to some future actions.
Fidelity implies presence, continual responsiveness. It involves patience and humility. Fidelity enables the married couple to face life’s deepest crises with courage. Fidelity in marriage is not coercive. There are the marriages where one spouse is faithful to the other only out of a feeling of duty; fidelity is reduced to constancy, a grudging perseverance in a static, stale relationship. The other person perceives this.
Many people today devalue life commitments and fidelity, claiming that the future was unknowable. Marcel thought they were incorrectly thinking of the future as though it were like the weather, something that happened to a person over which the person had no control. Marcel believed that to some extent, not completely, but to some extent we create our future by the choices we make.
He claimed that a certain level of maturity was necessary for a person to be able to make a life commitment, but he also claimed that such a level of maturity could only be achieved by making a life commitment. One can suffer from guilt knowing that one is breaking the promises s/he solemnly made. Fidelity involves a choice. I can refuse to remain faithful to the other, Marcel writes of how lovers are loyal not only to one another as separate individuals but to their love, to their union, which is something more than either of them viewed as distinct individuals. Marriage constitutes a new reality – US. There is a fidelity to fidelity, a loyalty to loyalty.
Marcel goes so far as to say that, in many ways, the essence of this world is perhaps betrayal. There are all the divorces, the annulments, the domestic violence. The novels and short stories of John Updike are modern commentaries on fidelity. Updike is preoccupied with the failure of fidelity, the refusal to stay. Updike’s characters hurt each and seem to lack to ability or means to do otherwise.
Fidelity involves a relationship, a presence, that even death cannot destroy; it is supra-temporal. This is the experience of many who have undergone the test of death.
Marcel writes that fidelity is a major factor that gives our lives meaning. Overall, Fidelity should tell us what to do in doubtful cases. The deciding factor is loyalty to our covenants; fidelity, or loyalty, should decide our consciences.
Finally, one can note that Marcel studied the piano, and eventually attained proficiency as a concert pianist. He stated that after a Bach concert one could have the assurance that it is an honor to be a human being. He attributed to music, especially to Bach’s music, his understanding of religious experience and his own religious development. Marcel was also a playwright of some significance.
