Saturday, July 25, 2020

Our senses and our faith

COMMON “complaint” God makes of us, if we may call it
that way, is that we do not use our senses—our sense of sight,
hearing, smell, touch, etc.—to perceive what is really most important
for us to perceive.

            This “complaint” is expressed, for example, in the Book of
Jeremiah where our Lord said, “Declare this in the house of Jacob and
proclaim it in Judah: Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who
have eyes but do no see, who have ears but do not hear.” (5,21)

            The same “complaint” is echoed in the gospel of St. Mark
as well as in the other gospels: “Having eyes, do you not see? And
having ears, do you not hear?” Christ asks the people. (Mk 8,18; cfr.
Mt 13,13; Jn 12,40)

            The problem, of course, is that the senses are not united
or inspired by faith. They are just left on their own, ruled mainly by
instincts and other biological factors. Or at best they may be guided
only by an intelligence that is not yet enlightened by faith.

            And things can become so bad that these senses can get
quite hostile to anything related to faith that definitely involves
spiritual and supernatural realities. That is why Christ said at one
time: “In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled: ‘You will be ever
hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing, but never
perceiving. For this people’s heart has grown callous; they hardly
hear with their ears, and they have close their eyes.” (Mt 13,14-15)

            We need to realize that the first, last and constant
object that our senses should perceive is God since he is the origin
of everything, the maintainer of the existence of all things. He is
everywhere.

            As St. Augustine once said: “To find where God is may be
difficult, but to find where he is not, that is even more difficult.”
And to be sure, God’s presence in everything is not something cold and
indifferent. It is full of love and solicitude.

            We need to train our senses to be guided by our Christian
faith, hope and charity, so we can capture this very consoling
reality. They should not just be left on their own, guided and ruled
only by factors other than our faith, hope and charity. That state of
affairs would lead us nowhere other than trouble.

            That is why there are so many problems around—conflicts,
wars, controversies, jealousies, hatred, etc. It’s because God is
ignored in our life and in our dealings. We practically avoid the
grace he is willing to give us abundantly. We ignore his teachings and
ways of how to handle the different situations in our life, including
the difficulties and the problems that we encounter unavoidably in
life.

            In other words, we resist his constant help. We prefer to
be on our own, relying simply on our own devices. We really need to
wake up from this self-inflicted predicament and have a general
over-haul of our beliefs, attitudes and skills.

            We have to activate our faith to such an extent that
whatever we see or hear or smell or feel, we always perceive God and
his will and ways. We have to learn the discipline of contemplation,
of recollection even while we immerse ourselves in the rough and
tumble of our daily human affairs.

            Obviously, this discipline will have a number of
requirements. We have to be very familiar with the teachings and the
example of Christ who is the fullness of God’s revelation to us. We
have to see to it that these teachings and example of Christ become
the main impulse-giver of our senses.

            To be able to perceive God always even from the level of
our senses is never an undermining of our humanity. It in fact
purifies our humanity and puts it in its ideal state!


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