SENSE OF WONDER

The Juvenile Justice System operative currently in India speaks of a few principles to be fostered among children, and to be adhered to by those who care for them. One of those principles among several the ‘Juvenile Justice’ envisages, viz. - ‘best interest of the child’, ‘privacy and confidentiality’, ‘non-discrimination’, etc. is ‘sense of wonder’.

The other day, while teaching the brothers here at Sunnyside on various principles the JJ system speaks of, and explaining to them ‘sense of wonder’, my mind went on to the ‘secular relativism’ Pope Benedict XVI has spoken of so eloquently and extensively throughout his papacy. I find great relationship between the two: sense of wonder and secular relativism.

Pope Francis as a Cardinal in 2003 has also tried reflect on this ‘sense of wonder’ in his book, ‘Generative Thought: An Introduction to the Works of Luigi Giussani’.

 Let’s try to move on to reflect on this amazing gift of the ‘sense of wonder’.

Questions such as ‘why is there something rather than nothing… why is this thing not that thing’ were asked not only by Leibnitz but several other philosophers and the men and women of former times as well. But the contemporary human being is not bothered by these ultimate questions and the answers they seek. Reinhold Niebuhr tells us that many people keep in their souls questions such as ‘why do I exist, Where do I go?’ We cannot pretend that such questions simply go away because we are afraid to raise or refuse to ask them.

In the book mentioned above, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio [now Pope Francis] says that if we wish to ask questions that we do not dare to answer and do not know how to answer, we fall into absurdity. In other words, a human person who refuses to ask himself/herself what he/she is essentially reject their own true nature. It boils down to the fact that we refuse to ask what kind of beings we really are. It is because we are afraid that the proper answer to the unasked questions will require us to live in truth which we do not want to accept.

Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio in his book is highly concerned about the spiritual lethargy that the modern man and woman embrace. He questions that how could man raise the question of God so ‘calmly’ as if it were not a burning desire in our souls. He cites from the famous ‘Fides et Ratio’ of Blessed John Paul – the most important questions of human life, death, evil and good are present in all cultures. They must be asked if we are to know who we truly are. And how is it possible not to wonder who we are?

Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio cites a few seminal questions, “Why is there pain, why death, why evil? Why is life worth living? What is the ultimate meaning of reality, of existence? What sense does it make to work, love, become involved in the world? Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going?” It is always good to see these questions spelled out for us. By not asking them of ourselves and of our fellows, we cease to be what we are.  Young and old, believers and non-believes ask these questions that ‘cannot be uprooted’. Yet, they can be ignored or suppressed in such a way that we cease to be really human.

On a depth level analysis, a few insights are inevitable:

·        We might have read the epic hero ‘Odysseus’ by Homer, where in we learn that he feels ‘homesick’, deeply desiring to see his wife, son and the whole lot of his hamlet. Or rather we might have heard of the great quote of GK Chesterton who said, “why do we feel homesick at home?” Here lies the point or the expression of St. Augustine, “Our hearts are restless, O Lord, until they rest in you…” Human beings possess in fact the yearning for the infinite. Sense of wonder is an expression of that.

·        Sense of wonder also reveals to us the perfection in God’s world and in ourselves, and it is important to nurture that perspective. When we view the world around us with wide eyes of wonder, we begin to appreciate everything as a gift from God, and of ourselves as if we are in perfect harmony with the nature. Contemplation in awe of everything that surrounds us including our own very selves is bound to help us in this regard. Gratitude takes us over completely, and we feel ourselves a great miracle amidst another miracle of God’s world. Above all, we need trust and value God present in our own selves.

·        Now coming back to the fundamental questions – we do not need to think that we can answer all our questions by ourselves. We live among those who have thought about them. Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio says, “Certainty does not reside in the human head but in the harmony of all human faculties.” Faith itself is primarily a trust in the authority of another – God. Most of the things anybody knows, he/she knows by trust in the testimony of others. Our religious faith depends on the witness of the Apostles and their faithful handing down of what they saw, heard and experienced. Church has not only the ‘moral certainty’ but the fullness of Truth, which her Bridegroom by the virtue of her relationship to Him. Therefore it is incorrect to say that ‘other religions also have an element of Truth’ and that the Church assimilates all those ‘elements of Truth’. The fact is that ‘the elements of truth’ found in other religions is actually and shall always be the property of the Church.

·         Aristotle teaches us that beginning of philosophy is wonder, and only wonder leads us to knowledge… in fact true knowledge leads us to love the Creator God. Pope Luciani [Pope John Paul I] had remarked, “the drama of contemporary Christianity lies in the fact that it puts categories and norms in the place of wonder”. Such derangement leads us all to what is a big disease of the day, ‘relative secularism’ – my body my choice…, that is truth for you this is truth for me…, we can add on the insane list. We might have heard of the recent aggressive reaction and abuse caused by the FEMEN activists on the Archbishop of Brussels, when he was attacked by a group of topless women [who stripped themselves] and poured water on him as he stood against homosexuality. The aggressive secularism is what stands against the ‘sense of wonder’.

Finally to conclude, an insight from the famous Samuel Johnson would aptly fit in here. He observed that many people do wonder but they refuse to do anything more than wonder. They do not take the next step to examine the facts and depths of reality. This seems to have been the concern of Pope Francis, the then Cardinal Bergoglio that the modern world composed of men and women wonder about all sorts of things except what is really important for them.

Thank you O Lord, for the wondrous creation, and for the great miracle of human person, for you continue to astound us and make us feel more wanting of you.

Thank you,

Papireddy. Gade

[May 4^th 2013]