The Question of Authority

As a kid, I had friends who always told me, "Good Friday to Easter Sunday does not add up to three days" or "the Gospel of St. Matthew says one thing and that of St. Mark say another and the book of Genesis contradicts how we understand the world”. I recall being disturbed about these judgments not to mention experiencing a waning of my faith like the Sower who sowed good seeds and the birds came and ate it away. The bird of ‘pride and reason’ wishing to topple the humility and serenity of faith and childlike reliance. I could never be a child. But I want to be now.

The more I understand the Bible, the more I come to understand why we require say the authority of a Church as one that can interpret that what is given qualifies as revelation such as the Bible which is the revealed wisdom of God. Just as a judge cannot dispense justice until it is firmly established what exactly is justice, or of the theologians, of hermeneutics, of the allegories, imageries and many things in the Old Testament finding its fulfillment in the New Testament. The more I am left like a child in wonder. How can a child not need a mother? How can I not require a friend? How can I not require an instructor or a lawmaker a hydraulic Engineer or an Architect? They all are authorities in their respective fields.

We put our faith everyday in ordinary matters on the mechanic who says the car part has gone bad and we will never know if he is lying and wants to make a buck or telling the truth. However, we can either spurn his counsel or run from pillar to post because we don’t trust him. The fact that I run from pillar to post presupposes that I have some knowledge that such a part cannot so easily go bad or that I have reasons to distrust him again presupposing that I know that his price quotation is disproportionate.

What do I do when I have no presuppositions? I have to take a leap of faith else my suspicion about the character of the mechanic can never teach me to trust people even if the suspicions are true and I stand to lose.

Today, we don’t know whom to put our faith in. Who has authority and where lies the truth? In such a crisis of trust which is really a crisis of belief is misconstrued as the crisis of truth. No truth remains but the individual’s own biased often uninformed or even whimsical search for truth and what he makes of things around him leading to some rejecting the very existence of Truth. What then remains of Truth is but what we make of it. Can there be a thousand truths?

Coming back to the Bible, time and again being heckled for antagonizing Science as if the Bible which is the wisdom and revelation of God tries to compete with Science which is the revelation of Man through reason. That science should be the revelation of Man through reason is something God wills and is the source of that reason and Man can access science simply because God has allowed him is something people don't comprehend. Pope Benedict XI has always maintained that Science is the discovery of God’s creation.

Science discovers nothing new from what God has readily made available. When Science finds out water on the moon, Science did not create the water or put it there. Either God has a plan for Man as we can see since the beginning of the Human race wherein Man has overcome certain disasters and periods of agony much because of the advancement of Science. Or God does not have a plan for Man and one virus or another will eventually overpower the greatest powers endowed to Science to serve Man and unveil slowly God’s creation, its complexity and intricacies. The point is, not whose wisdom is better or has more Authority, what the Bible says about Creation or what Science says?

The real question is whether we should look for scientific truths in the Bible. Is the Bible God’s Medical Journal? Applying the same standard, should we look for answers of greatest philosophical and theological questions from Scientists and Mathematicians? Shouldn’t the same apply to them? Their competence in one field does not entitle them to competence in another say, what Einstien has to say on God or what Hawkins has to say on the metaphysical question of the Universe cannot qualify as a philosophical or theological authority over what St. Thomas Aquinas or St. Augustine have thought throughout the ages. By the same token, I don’t think many people would pay much heed if St. Thomas Aquinas would deem one painting better than the other simply by preferring one color over another or one style of painting over another. It remains simply his opinion even if he were to write or sing paeans of it. And yet we see this bias in the media which happily would try to dwell more on the insights of Einstein mulling on the existence of God or lack thereof than even inquire on St. Thomas’s five arguments for the existence of God that has made apologists and theologians expound and build their cases on it down the centuries.

And this is what Ronald Knox says on the Holy Spirit inspiring the writers of the Bible

"What do we mean when we say that any book of the Old Testament was inspired? That the Holy Spirit helped the writers, watched over the process and saw they did it right; That doesn’t necessarily mean that every word in the Old Testament, taken quite literally, is infallibly accurate. You find it stated in the Psalms, for instance, that God has made the round world. And when Galileo, or rather, first Copernicus and then Galileo, produced the idea which we all believe in nowadays, that the earth travels round and round on its own axis; that the sun doesn’t really "set ", when that idea was produced, a lot of people, chiefly Protestants, said, "That’s heresy! The Bible tells us that the earth can’t be moved, and here are these people wanting us to believe that it’s speeding round and round like mad!" But of course that was idiotic of them.

The Psalms weren’t written to teach us lessons in geography; they were poetry, and the person who wrote that verse was just talking in the ordinary language of his time. So you can’t be certain that every word of the Old Testament is literally true. But you can be certain that the theology of the Old Testament, once you have understood it properly and made allowances for the Hebrew way of saying things, must be true; because when it was written the Holy Spirit was at work to see that the thing got done right."

We require theologians to understand the truths communicated to us by God. If God is the source of all intellect, sure the Bible is not going to be a walk in the Park. If we require a journalist to place the facts and figures in an appealing way or a teacher to impart knowledge in an interesting way or a doctor to heal without skepticism, we ought to require theologians to understand the Bible. The question is of authority and obedience to people of authority whether it is of a local man giving you directions because you are foreign to a place or of a nutritionist advising you to stop eating burgers. Nothing becomes truth because it receives print space in the media. But truth ought to receive print in the media.

Often we question the bible not because it is not true but because we don’t wish to understand it. we are rather ok with what the local journalist has to say on the bible and his gibe makes more sense to us than what perhaps a priest has to say. We don’t wish to understand it because we don’t wish to recognize any other authority but ourselves. When an authoritarian wishes to dispense truth, we want to believe, “Now that is your version of truth. Who gave you the authority to claim it as truth”?

Well, if everyone’s opinion were equally good, it is goodbye to teacher’s doctors, scientists, mathematicians, politicians, lawmakers. But because we have all of these, we presuppose that some people have better opinion than others. Some people’s opinions are closer to truth than others and hence have more authority. And lastly, because not all the people in the world can invest all their time to determine whether Abortion is wrong or otherwise lest they all suspend their lives and professional work until they have come to the truth, a search that may never even end.

That is why we have ethicists, or perhaps to illustrate, the echoing and bellowing of one such authority as the Catholic Church that in recent time since the blatant pro-abortionist era, has vociferously opposed Abortion. No one asks or tries to inquire on how the Church has come to believe what she believes. In such matters, wherein lies the faith of over a billion Catholics lies the sound judgment of hundreds of moralists, theologians, bioethicists, and philosophers. A lawmaker can get it wrong if all that he has with him is his thumping fist or lobbying majority.

A weak or humbug authority only gives diktats and imposes itself on others by use of force. But a sound authority engages itself with the intellectuals and other authorities of the respective domains and lays its life down for its beliefs. They neither dilute them nor disown them. An authority is known by its conviction not by intimidation or power.

The forsaking of authority and to choose whom to give the same is really the problem of a breakdown of freedom. We are all confused to our limits to freedom and the purpose of individuality and liberty. I have liberty to live they way I want but not to change the truth of life itself. Such a liberty roots from pride of ‘my life my rules’ but if such an ideology is true, I wonder how a reader would determine which magazine is better than the other, which writer is better than the other. If there are no rules, there can be no game. Each can do as they think and there is no point of having a referee. For a referee establishes that a game can be enjoyed and played because each one has consented to accepting certain rules which are fair. So is life with its truths.

The nature of Asceticism

Yesterday, my friend wanted a tool to do some work. He could do work without the tool but with it, life would be really simplified. He was making a call to me and I was in the Gymnasium. Later on, when I reached home, I told him, “you knew where the tool was, you could have just picked it up. He only smiled and said, ‘It is alright. I did fine without it”

I realized later his real philosophy. Often we get all we want by a simple request or a difficult one. We are averse to bothering ourselves but will go out of our ways to make that last desperate phone call to get what we want. Why inconvenience ourselves, is our reasoning.

But somewhere deep inside just a plain ‘it will be more convenient with the shampoo, with the bike ride, with the pen, with the envelope, with a new phone” is another mindset, a fear active-how can I do without it?

Whether finding out there is little water left to take a bath or there is not much rice left for two to eat, there is always this gnawing fear ‘can I survive this bath without enough water? Can this rice be enough? Should we make some calls or set out to buy more rice? Deep inside the frantic calls or always getting what you want, is a view of being unable to trust God that we would be alright if we choose to do without them. Sure, we feel relieved when we make a call or ask a friend or roommate to go out of their way or use their service and consequently only thank God for working through them. But this is the paradox of asceticism.

The mortal searches the ends of the earth driven by fear and is filled with gratitude after his ends have been met. The ascetic is filled with peace first, for he believes God takes care of all and he needn’t tear himself if he has to do without enough bread or without the AC working and he will survive. He searches God because he is alright if he is deprived of many a things. if he can only receive peace from God instead. The mortal man searches all the ends to receive what he desired if only he can drive away his worry.

One seeks peace; the other seeks to banish worry. One wishes to know what it is to do without things and fulfilling all desires and to only cling to God. The other dreads a day that he would have to do without these things and his desires and clings to anyone or anything that could get him his heart’s desire. One realizes that things bring peace but things are of this world and the peace they bring is also of this world only to vanish away until another thing grips his heart. So he rather have the peace that has God as its source in practicing poverty in order that he can embrace whatever is the reality of his being. The other is harrowed by not having enough and it presupposes a difficulty in trusting God that all will be fine or that we can survive it without great tumult in our soul.

If only we first cling to God in the definitive moment of making a choice whether to do without it or get what we desire that now seems like a spiritual warfare of loyalty to things eternal or things worldly. Of course, our desire to always get what we want and its consequent fulfillment establishes that in this spiritual warfare of choice, choosing whether we can trust God and drive out the fear, mostly our loyalties go with the things of this world. That is why our peace is also momentary. It flees.

This is also the paradox of peace in everyday difficulties. When we drive out the fear because we trust God and take a leap of faith, we are at peace. The fear will be lesser every next time. But there will be a next time and a faith to show. it will keep coming. When we think that all our heart desires should be granted which presupposes a fear that ‘life cannot go on without it’. It is subject to the nature of solutions your friend or any other has to offer like a little water instead of a lot or cold instead of hot. When you still don’t get what you prefer(say in this case more water or hot water respectively), the worry is not perfectly quelled and the sadness remains. We are still vulnerable to sadness. The worry is banished but the worry increases every next time it comes. There will be a next time. Our faith will be measured. It will keep coming too.

The Everyday truth of Friendships

There is a great joy in the little things of everyday friendship. My friend had to buy a camera yesterday and we went around from shop to shop trying to find him exactly what he wishes. Most of our friendship was lived on the way to these malls, on the sidewalk while starting the bike or while exiting a shop and infusing hope that the next shop would hand us what we desire.

After we bought the camera, we wanted to celebrate over dinner. I fancied this one hotel and two of my friends favored another. I tried my best using coy arguments to win them over. Eventually I chose friendship and their joy of desiring me to see what they see in the other hotel. I died unto my desire for my own joy over their hope of my joy after I come to believe what they believe

We lived so many little moments of friendship in numerous little things that it is hard to tell one from the other. If anyone were to ask me why I had a great time, it would be hard for me to explain how exactly that came about without a movie or sports or a party night.

I believe God often touches us in little things of love than show us friendships made of grandeur and show. If we are not able to encourage our friends in their little joys and be joyous ourselves, I see little possibility of we being able to grasp a nobler truth of a friendship with God.

For a friendship with God is discerning his hand and touch of love in the little things of everyday life. Without the grace to feel God's presence in our joys and pain, our life would remain but a random day of luck or error. We would neither be able to recognize the love of our really true Friend nor be able to live a friendship with Him who is the source of all our friendships, all our love. Life without finding love of God in little things would be merely an investment plan where one day we lose thousands and another day gain thousands.

But with God, the troubles of life are like walking over hilly areas in order to meet our friend who knows it is difficult to live friendship on His terms. And for all that, God rewards us with little joys of our life which are like resting on the greens of the valley. Without these bouts of love in little things, we lose the supernatural dimensions of our lives. Little things in friendship and the gratitude for love in them teaches us that peace in friendship is more wealthy than a life lived alone within our fantasies and dreams.

Seeking Perfection

My friend recounts a story of a girl he met who was very pretty, very sweet and innocent. Often, these 3 traits suffice to melt any man’s heart. It is true. Although, we tried hard putting him on and harrowing him that she has been brought up in a different culture, that he is a devout Hindu and she, with western tendencies, Church going girl and it won’t work out, he couldn’t resist her idiosyncrasies.

Yet, he returned every evening often sharing many woes about how she is. Beyond the sweetness and beauty laid an imperfect girl. She had issues, many impulses, temperamental and quick to anger. People might say who is not haunted by these shortcomings? Another group might say love conquers all.

Well, love couldn’t conquer for my friend. Somehow he later began to find her resistible. He kept her at bay. He was making choices. He was listening to what his ideologies are, what is his mental dispositions and preferences in a partner or for that matter, a friend. Eventually, he suppressed his feelings because he couldn't be around her.

I wondered that here is a girl, imperfect like each of us. If she is easily annoyed and is temperamental, perhaps I take things very seriously and have other weaknesses. Was my friend selfish in making his choices? By being assertive that the girl is not for him? Let us keep the selfishness for another blog post. I would like to dwell on the imperfections.

Deep inside, all of us seek perfection. All of us wish to have an efficient motorbike or a good looking house or a well cooked dinner. Man seeks perfection and this is not something new. St. Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century had cited ‘perfection’ as one of the rational proofs for the existence of God. If some people are more perfect than others, if some cities or governments or processes are more perfect than others, then everyone are at varying degrees of perfection. If there is such a thing as degrees of perfection, then such a thing as perfection exists. St. Thomas Aquinas called this idea of Perfection, God. Whereas us men who are mortals in whom God has infused in us the longing for perfection. So that eventually, we may seek God, the infinitely perfect.

Often when people wish to correct us, change us and we snub them asserting our freedom to be how we are. We fool ourselves by spurning their offer to secure our pride. As we seek perfection, in us and around us, we cannot help but correct our friends because a more perfect object can be loved much more than an object that hasn’t reached the same perfection.

We cannot love stray dogs as much as trained Dogs¹. We love trained dogs because we have perfected them to an extent where they can sit, stand and roll according to our commands. Hence they are more adorable and we are more disposed to shower affection in a dog that can reciprocate a degree of perfection that we have infused in them. A literate wife can be appreciated more for being resourceful than an illiterate wife who may in many quarters, becomes a burden. There is not so much selfishness her but a longing for perfection.

1. Ideas from C.S Lewis, Problem of Pain

It matters what you do

Whenever my friend Antonio asks others why they did what they did, the others will give their classic reply, “What about the whole world of people who are sinning? My action is not going to make any difference.”

Jesus said that when one person is lost He goes in search of the person and even if one person is found He celebrates. The whole world may be sinning but salvation is about you. They had their chance. Now it’s yours! The salvation of many men hangs on what you choose. They are going to choose their cards by something you are going to guide. It matters what you do

G. K Chesterton says, “We live at the wrong side of the tapestry” what we learn, what we encounter, we don’t comprehend that often it is only an experience for us but a lesson for someone else. It is not given to us the gift to look on the other side, to uncover the veil and know the secrets of every mysterious encounter with life. What we do now, we will never know whom it profits. If we are practicing honesty now, it is perhaps a preparation more for the person we will bump into ten years from now and who will be converted by our habits and conduct. But if we aren’t prepared, he is going to bump into us and life is going to be the same. We have lost his salvation for him.

We cannot delay our growth and our virtue for we delay that person our self can be due to which our friends are never the same again. They found the truth through us but if we don't grow the truth doesn't lie in us. If we are lazy in our growth, we are depriving all our friends of what they could meet know and their encounter with truth. It matters what you do!

St. Therese of Little Flower on Vanity

Vanity
But to go back to my story.Three months after I was cured, Father took me away for a delightful holiday, and I began to see something of the world. All around me was joy and happiness. I was entertained, pampered and admired; in fact, for a whole fortnight my path was strewn with flowers. But those words of the Book of Wisdom are only too true: "The bewitching of vanity overturneth the innocent mind." (Cf. Wis. 4:12). When you are only ten, your heart is fascinated very easily, and I must admit that I found this kind of life charming. The world is able to combine so well the search for pleasure with the service of God, forgetting death, yet it has come to so many rich and happy young people I used to know. My mind goes back to their enchanting homes, and I can't help wondering what use to them now are those chateaux and estates where they enjoyed all the world could offer, and I realize that "all is vanity save loving God and serving Him alone." (Imit. I:1,3)

I could watch this a million times

This is so sweet