Episode 02: The Stirrings of Faith
Real Life
An opening mediation
“It’s difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It’s a wonder I haven’t abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.”
“My dear Wormwood,
I note what you say about guiding your patient’s reading and taking care that he sees a good deal of his materialist friend. But are you not being a trifle naïf? It sounds as if you supposed that argument was the way to keep him out of the enemy’s clutches. that might have been so if he had lived a few centuries earlier. at that time the humans still knew pretty well when a thing was proved and when it was not; and if it was proved they really believed it. They still connected thinking with doing and were prepared to alter their way of life as the result of a chain of reasoning. But what with the weekly press and other such weapons we have largely altered that. Your man has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to have a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn’t think of doctrines as primarily “true” or “false”, but as “academic” or “practical”, “outworn” or “contemporary”, “conventional” or “ruthless”. Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church. Don’t waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true! Make him think it is strong, or stark, or courageous — that it is the philosophy of the future. That’s the sort of thing he cares about.
The trouble about argument is that it moves the whole struggle onto the enemy’s own ground. He can argue too; whereas in really practical propaganda of the kind I am suggesting he has been shown for centuries to be greatly the inferior of our father below. By the very act of arguing, you awake the patient’s reason; and once it is awake, who can foresee the result? Even if a particular train of thought can be twisted so as to end in our favour, you will find that you have been strengthening in your patient the fatal habit of attending to universal issues and withdrawing his attention from the stream of immediate sense experiences. Your business is to fix his attention on the stream. teach him to call it “real life” and don’t let him ask what he means by “real”.
Remember, he is not, like you, a pure spirit. never having been a human (oh that abominable advantage of the enemy’s!) you don’t realise how enslaved they are to the pressure of the ordinary. I once had a patient, a sound atheist, who used to read in the British Museum. one day, as he sat reading, I saw a train of thought in his mind beginning to go the wrong way. The enemy, of course, was at his elbow in a moment. Before I knew where I was I saw my twenty years’ work beginning to totter. If I had lost my head and begun to attempt a defence by argument I should have been undone. But I was not such a fool. I struck instantly at the part of the man which I had best under my control and suggested that it was just about time he had some lunch. The enemy presumably made the counter-suggestion (you know how one can never quite overhear what he says to them?) that this was more important than lunch. At least I think that must have been his line for when I said “Quite. In fact much too important to tackle at the end of a morning”, the patient brightened up considerably; and by the time I had added “Much better come back after lunch and go into it with a fresh mind”, he was already half way to the door. Once he was in the street the battle was won. I showed him a newsboy shouting the midday paper, and a no. 73 bus going past, and before he reached the bottom of the steps I had got into him an unalterable conviction that, whatever odd ideas might come into a man’s head when he was shut up alone with his books, a healthy dose of “real life” (by which he meant the bus and the newsboy) was enough to show him that all “that sort of thing” just couldn’t be true. He knew he’d had a narrow escape and in later years was fond of talking about “that inarticulate sense for actuality which is our ultimate safeguard against the aberrations of mere logic”. He is now safe in our father’s house.
You begin to see the point? Thanks to processes which we set at work in them centuries ago, they find it all but impossible to believe in the unfamiliar while the familiar is before their eyes. Keep pressing home on him the ordinariness of things. Above all, do not attempt to use science (I mean, the real sciences) as a defence against Christianity. they will positively encourage him to think about realities he can’t touch and see. there have been sad cases among the modern physicists. if he must dabble in science, keep him on economics and sociology; don’t let him get away from that invaluable “real life”. but the best of all is to let him read no science but to give him a grand general idea that he knows it all and that everything he happens to have picked up in casual talk and reading is “the results of modern investigation”. Do remember you are there to fuddle him. from the way some of you young fiends talk, anyone would suppose it was our job to teach!
Your affectionate uncle,
Screwtape”
The letter above is an excerpt from C.S. Lewis' masterpiece The Screwtape Letters. Screwtape is a demon and he writes letters to his nephew Wormwood in order to explain to him the proper way to tempt a human. The first chapter, which you read above, focuses on several important aspects of faith:
The importance of understanding doctrine
That argument, or reason, comes from God, and thus is an important element of faith
That our obsession with “real life” can be a real barrier to faith.
The struggle with “real life” is it prevents our ability to see a larger purpose in the objects around us. It prevents us from seeing the significance of the people around us. Faith asks us to look beyond "real life" and desire more. For humanity, "real life" means that human lives are only the sum total of their biochemical parts, but faith allows us to understand that through God, Humanity transcends the physical realm to have an eternal destiny.
Weekly
Prayer
Intentions
To be prayed daily
Pause for some silence
Pause for some silence
The Sign of the Cross
Start by touching your right hand to your forehead, then your stomach, followed by your left and right shoulders while saying "In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen"
The Road Ahead - Prayer of Thomas Merton
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following Your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please You does in fact please You. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore, will I trust You always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
Amen.
Specific intentions:
Open my ears Lord that I may hear the truth I seek.
Open my eyes Lord that I may see the truth I seek.
Open my heart Lord that I may accept the truth I receive.
Personal intentions:
Please add your own intentions here.
Our Father:
Our Father, who art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Glory Be:
Glory be to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be world without end, Amen.
Weekly
Journal
Prompt
Weekly Readings
In this week's reflection, In Real Life, we see how argument belongs to the Realm of God. As you have reflected on the interaction between Faith and Reason this week you have become aware of the ways in which Faith even surpasses Reason. But in all of our intellectual exercises, we often forget to think about how faith affects our own lives. So, consider the following questions: What are you looking for in life? What are your goals and ideals? How is your life a journey toward God? As a seeker, how do you look for truth? What have you found in your search thus far? How does the Church help you in your search for God? How does your family affect your faith?
Click on the Link to download each of the articles for further reading this week.
A short primer on Christianity
Why do we call it the Good News? Click here to download
The Meaning of Faith
How Man achieves the good of his rational nature. Click here to download
Faith and Reason
What is Christianity’s connection to the intellect? Click here to download
The Creed
What is required for belief in Christianity? Click here to download
Weekly Activity:
We do not walk alone
As you continue through subsequent weeks of RCIA, you will need to choose a sponsor. The exercise of one's faith is never done in a vacuum. There are always other people involved. We come together as a group to discuss matters of faith every week here at RCIA. We pray for other people. We worship God together at the Mass. Finding someone to share this walk with you is just as important as spending time learning what the faith teaches. The person who shares this walk with you is called a sponsor.
Who would make a good Sponsor?
Your sponsor is someone you can speak to honestly as you have questions about the Catholic faith along the way during the RCIA process.
Your sponsor is someone who will walk with you and pray for you on your faith journey. Your sponsor is the person who will stand with you when you are received into the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil Mass.
Who is eligible to be your sponsor?
Someone who is now a practicing Catholic
Someone who has received the sacraments of Baptism, Holy Eucharist, and Confirmation
Someone who is at least 16 years of age
Someone who is not your parent, spouse, or significant other
Your task this week is to simply begin thinking about whom you would like to be your sponsor. If you already have someone in mind, feel free to go ahead and speak them about it. Once they have agreed, please let us know who he or she is. If you are having difficulty thinking of someone, please don't hesitate to ask us to help you find someone.