The Eye that Sees

Seeing how true faith avoids extremes of Manichees and magic

05/26/2018

Mark 10:13-16 People were bringing children to Jesus that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them, "Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the Kingdom of God like a child will not enter it." Then he embraced the children and blessed them, placing his hands on them.

The fundamental function of faith is to help us see below the surface of things, to glimpse more than meets the eyes. The Bible itself attests to this truth in Hebrews 11:1, “Faith is confident assurance of things unseen.” Faith helps us see the invisible. But being people of faith also requires us to take great care of what we do see, the material world, that even though we look beyond it, we don’t forget it.

Basically, we have to strike a balance between two extremes, which are really rooted in two heresies. On the one hand stands the error of the Manichees, who held that material things (like the human body) was corrupt and we need to be freed from it; we need to “shuffle off this mortal coil.” On the other hand, we have magic, which believes that material things (like a rosary or a scapular) have spiritual power in themselves apart from God. This is superstition plain and simple, and exaggerates the claims of matter. Faith’s function, then, is to help us see more than meets the eye, but it does not forget what we do see, and it does not forget the eye that sees. True faith always avoids the twin errors of the extremes positions of the Manichees and magic.

I believe the Catholics who built our church of the Immaculate Conception in 1901 were people of towering and tremendous faith, precisely because they struck this balance between the visible and the invisible, between matter and spirit, between earth and heaven. Consider this striking example. The large stained glass window on the south side, along Rogers Ave., tells the story of today’s gospel from Mark 10. Jesus rebukes the apostles and takes the children into his arms to bless them. I always read Mark 10 when I celebrate baptisms. Just like Jesus blessed children, so Catholics bless children with the grace of baptism. It’s okay to baptize babies!

Then, if you look to the opposite wall (above the north entry), you find the magnificent window depicting Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Can you guess which of the seven sacraments that window reminds us of? That’s right: the sacrament of confirmation. And nestled in between those two sacraments of initiation is the sanctuary, the altar, where we celebrate the third sacrament of initiation, the Holy Eucharist. Using their vision of faith, the forefathers and foremothers of Immaculate Conception built an edifice of faith as beautiful as it is balanced. They point us beyond what is see, but never forget that matter matters, too. They could care less about the Manichees or about magic.

As you make your way through your own journey of faith, try to peer deeply into things and see below the surface level of the world. Here are some examples. Your marriage to your spouse is a symbol of the love between Jesus and his church; that’s its deepest reality. Or, as C. S. Lewis playfully said, “Sex is more than four bare legs in a bed.” Or take human history, which is more than merely the clash of political powers, or the surging of the blind forces of economics, but rather it is the stage upon which God’s providence directs all human activity, all ups and downs, all triumphs and tragedies. As Shakespeare famously said in the play “As You Like It,” “All the world’s a stage, / And all the men and women merely players; / They have their exits and their entrances.” In the end, we all do God’s bidding. Even creation is more than simply birds and bees, mountains and trees. For St. Francis of Assisi creation was a chorus of song that accompanies the angels in praising the glory of God. That is, people of faith cannot look at water or oil or bread or wine or a man or a woman simply on the surface; much more is going on.

The eyes of faith always behold a mystery that rejects both the Manichees and magic. Faith sees more than meets the eye, but it does not forget the eye that sees.

Praised be Jesus Christ!