Iniisip ko lang: It is necessary to believe that the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, that water evaporates and eventually falls again onto the earth as rain, that the digestive system flows from this organ to this organ, that acceleration of a falling body increases as it gets closer and closer to the earth, etc. etc. ---- because they are and can be proven.
But this is not the case with Faith. In faith, a lot of things are not and cannot be proven. And people have been searching for signs and proofs to help them believe God as indubitably and necessarily as they do in those proven by Science. These people succeed to a certain extent, but fail to fully capture that which will shut up the agnostics and atheists.
It did not help that God, or Jesus of Human history, was so mysterious. It did not help that He did not perform miracles in front of those who doubted Him. It did not help that He stayed attached to the cross in His miserable condition at that very appropriate time to prove His Almighty-God-hood. It did not help that His resurrection and ascension were made known, at that time, to only those who loved Him.
Kakainis! All we have now are reports of His friends. And their reports are too figurative and not scientific. How can believers use them to convince non-believers? Wala! Mahirap! Futile.
And so we're left with the claim that believing in God is a personal matter. It will take the person himself to decide that "Yes, i will believe God." Believing, or Faith, then becomes a decision and choice that one person has to make for himself deliberately. And, of course, logical people find this motivation so lame.
Sayang. Kung iniahon lang ni Hesus ang sarili Niya sa krus noong hinamon Siya ng mga hindi naniniwalang Siya nga ang Diyos, e 'di wala sanang problema. Believing in Him would have been as necessary as believing in the rising and setting of the sun, the water cycle, the digestive system or the laws of physics.
Pero ang nangyari, parang nagpakasutil ang Diyos sa mga nagdududa at parang sinasabi Niyang, "Tse, bakit Ko kayo bibigyan ng maginhawang paraan para maniwala sa Akin? Magsikap kayo. Paghirapan niyo. Kailangang piliin ninyong maniwala. Kailangang tiisin niyong matawag na 'tanga' ng mga matatalino, para sa Akin. Kung talagang mahal niyo Ako, kailangang sa inyo rin manggaling ang pananalig sa Akin; hindi sa Akin lang."
Maybe God does not operate on logic and intellect. Or maybe He does, but only to a certain extent, because His reality is beyond what intellect can conceive, and He chooses to not submit Himself to human standards only. Maybe He wants the "faithful" to operate beyond the criteria of the intellect, and (like Him) use instead a seemingly stupid and masochistic criterion, which is Love.
It is not Love when it is already necessary to do so. The surrender we do in believing the things proven by science is convenient. Love is sacrificing and self-mortifying; it is the giving-up of one's own comfort zone and areas of control.
We've been wanting for God to operate within our familiar laws of logic, but that is very selfish on our part. He has His own omniscient and transcendent criteria which He wants us to embrace, too. Ang yabang naman natin. He already became Man and suffered. Ano pa ba ang kailangan natin? It takes two to tango. It's our turn now, after He got to where we were, to get to where He is . And it is a zone that is beyond Logic. It is a zone of Love.
The word "Love" has been so abused. We usually say we love a person because we admire him, or because he satisfies our need for delight and pleasure. But true love requires us to lose ourselves -- it is not an investment waiting for returns. Medyo hinihingi ng Love na magpalugi ka, magpauto ka, magpakatanga ka, magpakamasokista ka.
I think it was St. Anselm who said (somehow): "I thought before that I should know You first before I can call You; but I understand now that what works is I call You first before I can know You." He believed that human understanding is not the starting point; faith is. This discussion also reminds me of St. Augustine who said (somehow): "In understanding God, we should remember that He is as immense as the sea and we are just but a cup trying to contain Him."
And we'll never ever succeed in trying to contain God in our cup-ness. What we need to do is plunge and swim into this sea, be surrounded by it, surrender to it, drown in it.
I am not trying to promote blind faith. Faith should still try to exhaust everything that can be understood about God's mystery (kudos to those who don't stop searching for God even if they already understand that this pursuit is insatiable). But upon reaching -- and one must always try to reach this -- the finish line of Understanding (a human area), one must proceed beyond it and resort to Loving (a divine area).
Somehow, our Filipino word for Faith is better in evoking what it's all about: PANANAMPALATAYA. Faith is based on a little personal experience, a taste of God (Pananam). And hopefully this "pananam" will enable him to take the plunge into this beyond-human arena, surrendering his familiar criteria and risking his comforts and himself (Palataya). Faith is a little knowledge, and a lot of love. Pananam-palataya.
And so for those who have made up their minds about the "illogicity" of God's reality, and will never be convinced until God does something fantastic publicly (like save himself from being nailed to the cross in front of many witnesses) to satisfy their puny intellects, I say:
"Aba, ang yabang mo naman. Ano ka lang ba't akala mo kung sino ka na?" =))
But this is not the case with Faith. In faith, a lot of things are not and cannot be proven. And people have been searching for signs and proofs to help them believe God as indubitably and necessarily as they do in those proven by Science. These people succeed to a certain extent, but fail to fully capture that which will shut up the agnostics and atheists.
It did not help that God, or Jesus of Human history, was so mysterious. It did not help that He did not perform miracles in front of those who doubted Him. It did not help that He stayed attached to the cross in His miserable condition at that very appropriate time to prove His Almighty-God-hood. It did not help that His resurrection and ascension were made known, at that time, to only those who loved Him.
Kakainis! All we have now are reports of His friends. And their reports are too figurative and not scientific. How can believers use them to convince non-believers? Wala! Mahirap! Futile.
And so we're left with the claim that believing in God is a personal matter. It will take the person himself to decide that "Yes, i will believe God." Believing, or Faith, then becomes a decision and choice that one person has to make for himself deliberately. And, of course, logical people find this motivation so lame.
Sayang. Kung iniahon lang ni Hesus ang sarili Niya sa krus noong hinamon Siya ng mga hindi naniniwalang Siya nga ang Diyos, e 'di wala sanang problema. Believing in Him would have been as necessary as believing in the rising and setting of the sun, the water cycle, the digestive system or the laws of physics.
Pero ang nangyari, parang nagpakasutil ang Diyos sa mga nagdududa at parang sinasabi Niyang, "Tse, bakit Ko kayo bibigyan ng maginhawang paraan para maniwala sa Akin? Magsikap kayo. Paghirapan niyo. Kailangang piliin ninyong maniwala. Kailangang tiisin niyong matawag na 'tanga' ng mga matatalino, para sa Akin. Kung talagang mahal niyo Ako, kailangang sa inyo rin manggaling ang pananalig sa Akin; hindi sa Akin lang."
Maybe God does not operate on logic and intellect. Or maybe He does, but only to a certain extent, because His reality is beyond what intellect can conceive, and He chooses to not submit Himself to human standards only. Maybe He wants the "faithful" to operate beyond the criteria of the intellect, and (like Him) use instead a seemingly stupid and masochistic criterion, which is Love.
It is not Love when it is already necessary to do so. The surrender we do in believing the things proven by science is convenient. Love is sacrificing and self-mortifying; it is the giving-up of one's own comfort zone and areas of control.
We've been wanting for God to operate within our familiar laws of logic, but that is very selfish on our part. He has His own omniscient and transcendent criteria which He wants us to embrace, too. Ang yabang naman natin. He already became Man and suffered. Ano pa ba ang kailangan natin? It takes two to tango. It's our turn now, after He got to where we were, to get to where He is . And it is a zone that is beyond Logic. It is a zone of Love.
The word "Love" has been so abused. We usually say we love a person because we admire him, or because he satisfies our need for delight and pleasure. But true love requires us to lose ourselves -- it is not an investment waiting for returns. Medyo hinihingi ng Love na magpalugi ka, magpauto ka, magpakatanga ka, magpakamasokista ka.
I think it was St. Anselm who said (somehow): "I thought before that I should know You first before I can call You; but I understand now that what works is I call You first before I can know You." He believed that human understanding is not the starting point; faith is. This discussion also reminds me of St. Augustine who said (somehow): "In understanding God, we should remember that He is as immense as the sea and we are just but a cup trying to contain Him."
And we'll never ever succeed in trying to contain God in our cup-ness. What we need to do is plunge and swim into this sea, be surrounded by it, surrender to it, drown in it.
I am not trying to promote blind faith. Faith should still try to exhaust everything that can be understood about God's mystery (kudos to those who don't stop searching for God even if they already understand that this pursuit is insatiable). But upon reaching -- and one must always try to reach this -- the finish line of Understanding (a human area), one must proceed beyond it and resort to Loving (a divine area).
Somehow, our Filipino word for Faith is better in evoking what it's all about: PANANAMPALATAYA. Faith is based on a little personal experience, a taste of God (Pananam). And hopefully this "pananam" will enable him to take the plunge into this beyond-human arena, surrendering his familiar criteria and risking his comforts and himself (Palataya). Faith is a little knowledge, and a lot of love. Pananam-palataya.
And so for those who have made up their minds about the "illogicity" of God's reality, and will never be convinced until God does something fantastic publicly (like save himself from being nailed to the cross in front of many witnesses) to satisfy their puny intellects, I say:
"Aba, ang yabang mo naman. Ano ka lang ba't akala mo kung sino ka na?" =))
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