More Good Friday thoughts

From separate sources, yet connected:

Lord Jesus, 
raise us from our own falls, 
lead our wandering spirit 
back to your Truth. 
Do not allow human reason, 
which you created for yourself, 
to be satisfied with the partial truths 
of science and technology 
without seeking to pose the fundamental questions 
of the meaning of our existence
(cf. Porta Fidei, 12).

as quoted in the Way of the Cross at the Colosseum, Stations of the Cross led by the Holy Father Pope Francis, Good Friday, The Passion of the Lord Meditations by Lebanese young people under the guidance of His Eminent Beatitude Cardinal Béchara Boutros Raï (as requested by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI)

This resonated with me, for the exact reason that modern science uses to reject the role of faith. Scientists insist that clinging to the concept of a creator of our universe will suppress the discovery of all that science can learn. If we don't seek out answers because we simply attribute everything that exists to God, we can never discover in full the workings of this universe. And as much as I hate that science has concluded that there is no way to allow any room for God in any "scientific" answer or endeavor, I understand the logic of this concern.

But if we conclude that our existence is a cosmic accident with no greater meaning, we arrive at the same problem! If we assume that there is no fundamental meaning of our existence, we will never seek it, and therefore can never hope to find it.

These two endeavors need not be mutually exclusive, and I love how Pope Benedict in his papacy emphasized the need for each to embrace the other.

These pages are an exploration into mystery. The word "mystery" in this context doesn't mean a puzzle, as in a murder mystery. It is not a thing to be solved, but an adventure into wonder, with each wonder that we encounter leading on to the next and greater wonder. - Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, Death on a Friday Afternoon

I didn't read this book this Lent. I thought I might be "all reflected out" on it. But no, here within the few pages I read on Good Friday I find a thought connected to the one that struck me as I prayed the Stations earlier. We have become so arrogant as to conclude that if a thing appears insolvable, we must reject it rather than allow ourselves to "pointlessly" ponder a thing that we have firmly made up our minds about.

For instance, many have seen the truth that "there is great suffering in the world" as incontrovertible evidence that the idea that "God is perfect love" must be false. If we begin with the stance that there is no greater meaning to our existence, we will not allow ourselves to consider how we might be reaching a wrong conclusion.

After all, what sort of love is unwilling to suffer for our beloved?

So the idea that this world is not the be all and end all of our existence does indeed cost us experiences that we might embrace if it is not so, and it is impossible for us to solve the "puzzle" of how these two things could both be true if we are convinced that the invention of religion - and an afterlife in particular - serves the primary purpose of relieving us of the stark reality of our mortality. If we believe that, then there's no point in trying to make sense of the death of an (allegedly) good man 2000 years ago: it was simply the evil of religion rearing its ugly head again.

But if our existence indeed has a greater meaning - if the pain of this life serves some purpose, if sacrificial love matters in the cosmic scheme of things, if there is an eternity for us to enter into, if we're not just an accident of physics like countless others before us and countless more to come - we can only learn that by trying to plumb how it might be true rather than insisting that it can't be.

This takes a humility which is counter to our nature, and Christians are often as removed from it as atheists are.