ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

 

ASK THE COMPUTER

In the mid-1970's I learned a computer language called "Basic," and under the tutelage of Fr. Mark, a brother monk, I learned to program our computer to do all sorts of handy things for me in my work at school. I loved the thrill of getting the computer to follow my directions and, say, make a list of all the students who had signed up for Geometry but had received an F on Algebra I the previous semester. 

It was even more fun, in a weird sort of way, it the program didn't work at first. Say I type "Run" and the computer screen fills up with a single student's name appearing over and over. Uh-oh! Now what? I type "Break." The first step is to ask the computer what's going on. I ask it to tell me the value of each of the variables I've assigned at the top of the program. Let's say I ask for the current value of the variable SN$(%), that increases by 1 each time a name is printed.  Whoa! The value of SN$(%), which should be over 50 by now, is still at 0! That's the explanation of the weird output. (I love explanations, don't you?) So then I go into my program and make the necessary change, and type "Run" again and see how much further I get toward producing the list. Asking the computer makes perfect sense because I know that the answer, the logical explanation, is there somewhere -- I just need to ask the right question.

"REASON" TAKES OVER

In the 1700's in Europe, the rationalists saw that everything in the world seemed to obey the laws of the sciences that were being developed at the time. They decided that the universe was a vast mechanical system governed by the laws of the physical sciences. Having applied the laws of evidence, cause and effect and so on in the physical world with such astounding success, they couldn't stop themselves, and began applying these laws to everything, even things that lay outside of their neat time-space box. They concluded that if something couldn't be measured scientifically then it simply didn't exist. They just decided this, of course, with (paradoxically) no evidence for their claim. So, out the window went ultimate meaning in life, God, existence beyond the grave, and all such non-scientific religious concepts.

THE GOD OF EXPLANATION

Up until that time people had believed in a transcendent God -- the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, for example. The Judeo-Christian God was involved with His people, and loved them, while they in return could praise, thank, glorify and even complain loudly to their God. But now suddenly the rationalist worldview swept over the Western World, and the God of Abraham was replaced by "the god of explanation." You and I sometimes fall into this mistake, too: We ask God to explain himself to us, to justify why a certain tragic thing has happened. "If you are all loving and infinitely kind and just, then why was this baby born with this awful disease? Explain yourself!" We think it's like asking the computer until you get the rational solution to the question. And naturally we get frustrated, angry and feel betrayed when no explanation is forthcoming.

WANTING IT BOTH WAYS

Why do we people of faith sometimes get angry at God for not offering us explanations for the existence of evil in the world? Well, we seem to want two mutually contradictory things at the same time: We want a God who operates in a rational, logical manner (like my computer program), a God that we can comprehend -- a God like us, whom we can therefore predict and even control. But at the same time we want a God who is infinitely loving and forgiving, and whose power and wisdom lie way beyond the limits of our puny human understanding.

The God of Faith permeates the world God created, with its incredible beauty and elegance. But this same God invites us into a relationship of intimacy that involves vulnerability, s[spontaneity and trust. inviting you and me to rely on the virtue of hope in the face of the more mysterious parts of the Divine Plan. The God of Faith does not, indeed can not offer us explanations for the most important things in our lives. That's why the God of Faith apologizes to us (see last week's post): God created us to be curious problem-solvers, but then came up with a Plan for the world that is beyond our ability to comprehend. What a bummer! 

But also, what an opportunity for a relationship of intimacy and trust between ourselves and God!