Believing is seeing

The Aymara Indians with whom I worked as a priest in Bolivia in the early 1970s were decidedly pre-scientific. Many believed, for instance, that illness was a punishment from God. Enlightened gringo as I was, I tried to persuade them that it was more often than not caused by infection from microbes and that God is a loving father who doesn't punish in that way - despite the stories of the Old Testament.

I explained that these microbes were "little invisible animals" that crawl around in and on body parts. They were too respectful to say it, but I imagined they were saying among themselves: "El padre cree que hay animalitos invisibles. Father believes there are little invisible animals! Ha!"

Though we study biology and other sciences in school, the facts they reveal seldom remain in our consciousness. I recall a book from about the same period called "Life on Man" by Theodore Rosebury. It was about the thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of mostly benign microbes that live, among other places, on our face - around our eyes, in our nose and in and around our mouths. I was astonished. But I soon forgot about it. It wasn't part of my daily experience, so it didn't mean much to me in the long run.

Is seeing believing?
This is an example of how the old saw, "seeing is believing" no longer rings true. As it turns out, so much of life occurs below our radar, out of our sight. Just think of the incredible complexity and activity in a cell, the basic structure of all living things. Unless scientists in the 19^th century had discovered them, humans wouldn't have a clue they exist and how important they are to life. But remarkable as they are, we are seldom conscious of them.

I often think about this when wondering about God’s “absence.” Sometimes, when you most need him/her, God appears to be missing in action. He/she seems to be blind and deaf. Then again, is it possible that God, like the microbes we don’t see, is pervasive and we’re just not conscious of him/her, and, unlike in many fields of science, lack devices to detect him/her? Since so many people have for centuries experienced God at some time in their lives, isn’t it possible – maybe even probable – that we’re just not tuned in?

As for “knowing” in itself, the difficulty of knowing with certainty has led some to skepticism about the possibility of knowing at all. And such ambiguity is among the reasons why many people are unenthusiastic about religious faith. You really can't know the truth, so why bother? It's a serious issue because a sense of truth helps make life meaningful. Even if accompanied by doubt, knowing that God exists and is involved in our lives provides meaning. And social scientists, starting at least with psychiatrist Victor Frankl, author of the famous book, "Man's Search for Meaning" in 1959, have long known how important meaning is to our well-being.

He wrote that the people of faith with whom he was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp saw their lives as meaningful even in the midst of misery and horror. And, they tended to survive at a greater rate than those who believed their lives to be meaningless.

Compensation for meaninglessness
In our society, people do what they can to compensate for perceived meaninglessness. It often involves busyness, consumerism, the pursuit of “success,” sex, alcohol or drugs – whatever can distract from the hard, cold reality of death and a world perceived to be godless.

Theologians say faith is a gift from God, but as I have mentioned in these blogs, you have to be open to it and that's hard in today's environment. I hope readers of this blog make the attempt to be open, suspending cynicism about life's meaning, and doing all they can to search out the truth about God and faith.

The Aymara Indians with whom I worked in Bolivia were mostly ignorant about science but had a remarkable openness to God's invitation to faith. And despite their poverty and disease and the horrible things that occurred around them, their lives had meaning. That made their lives bearable, and often, enjoyable. They saw life through the eyes of faith, which made all the difference, because believing is seeing.

Please provide the address of this blog to your friends and family, and stay tuned.

TC