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!