“Wear Proper Clothes To Respect The Sanctity of The House Of God”

Well, we really should. I remember when my brothers and I were kids, our parents would force us to wear polo shirts and pants (with the shirt tucked so deep, or rather the pants worn so high it made us look like we had unusually small torsos! Baduy!). There was a time when churchgoers were donned in their most formal attire. We were taught to dress that way. There was logic in this after all. Going to mass was a time when we would be communing with God and of course, each of us would want to look our best! There was a time when the sentiments and devotion of people flowed naturally outwards and expressed through their appearance and deeds, and not the other way around.

Eight years ago I had my own website which I called Goodness Bites which featured my artwork, literature and lecture materials. But the highlight of my old website was a comic strip series through which I expressed my funny experiences and thoughts on churchgoing. Some Catholic websites even featured these comic strips regularly. This is one of my most "syndicated" comic panel:

I wasn't able to maintain my website after Angelfire changed their policies about ad placements (My website was a mess with the ads). This was during the pre-CSS era. I didn't have the patience and ability to fix it up, so the website eventually died. And then just recently, I saw this commercial airing in TV:

You could imagine my surprise and delight upon watching this. I am not exactly sure if my comic strip inspired the director behind the commercial, but you couldn't deny that the "Christ, what a body!" concept is basically the same, not to mention the similarity between the elements of the video and the comic strip. My brother told me to invoke my intellectual property rights and demand compensation. I don't know. I couldn't. There was something not right if I did that. But it would be something if the person behind this commercial really did get inspiration from my comic strip which perhaps he saw 8 years ago. And then he got this opportunity to take this idea to video format so it could reach a broader audience. That really would be something.

Having this chance to see this, it makes me rethink about how I myself prepare for the mass. It's so sad that nowadays, I could go to mass wearing slippers and shorts without much thinking and so much for my own convenience. I know people say what's important is how sincere your thoughts and prayers are. But then perhaps when I have the ilk to say this, I'm just creating an alibi to justify my apparent lack of concern. We are after all physical beings with the need to "experience" things. God's glory is so great we don't even have the words to describe (or even the capacity to imagine). But He reveals Himself to us in ways that we can "experience" him: through the world we presently live in. It is I think right to express our love for Him in the only way we presently can: through the world we currently live in. The manner in which we lead all aspects of our lives, whether how small or large, is a natural reflection or outcome of our sincere beliefs and virtues. The world view has truly become so skewed that we now have the need to be constantly reminded in the face of our demand in expressing our human choices. Time to rethink.

Flatland… (Geometry of Faith)

I wrote and drew this entry in my old-tech blog, my Moleskine notebook, where I relate about how greatly the works of C.S. Lewis, particularly his essay on Transposition had influenced the way I look at my own faith. Moved with the imageries he used in that essay, I often borrowed his ideas when discussing about my faith. I often find myself extending the use of these imageries to the domain of geometry, something that almost everyone understands better than abstract concepts. With the aid of a visual demonstration, a more creative way of teaching… here is my attempt in capturing that idea, which I call "The Geometry of Faith"…

I always upload my notebook entries to my DeviantArt and Flickr accounts (I have yet to compile more spreads before I create an album in Multiply). One of my contacts in DeviantArt, scalpod, after reading my piece referred me to an 1884 novella by an English clergyman named Edwin Abbot Abbot. I have no idea of his work yet but the title of the book was enough to push me to read it… Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions…

The story is narrated by A. Square (literally a square), who guides us through life in the two dimensional world which is called Flatland. It is quite amusing how Abbot manages to describe the society and culture in this world, ranging from a caste system dictated by the number of sides one has (Circles are the most respected and women are mere lines) to the daily nuances of two dimensional life. He is then visited by a 3-dimensional sphere, but he seems unable to comprehend the third dimension until he was brought into it. Imagine how this realization opened his mind to new realities, but how futile his attempt was to share this experience to his fellow Flatlanders.

Here is an excerpt from the Preface of the book:

"I admit," said he -- when I mentioned to him this objection -- "I admit the truth of your critic's facts, but I deny his conclusions. It is true that we have really in Flatland a Third unrecognized Dimension called 'height,' just as it also is true that you have really in Spaceland a Fourth unrecognized Dimension, called by no name at present, but which I will call 'extraheight.' But we can no more take cognizance of our 'height' than you can of your 'extraheight.' Even I -- who have been in Spaceland, and have had the privilege of understanding for twenty-four hours the meaning of 'height' -- even I cannot now comprehend it, nor realize it by the sense of sight or by any process of reason; I can but apprehend it by faith."

The book is an impressive piece of work, and though it is a classic piece, it is amazing how its premise still pervades current thinking, from scientific (quantum physics) to religious (faith) and even revived as an educational tool (mathematics and geometry), entertainment media (there are currently 2 new animated movie adaptations), and a library of literary and visual pieces.

From Flatland: The Movie:

From Flatland: The Film

Carl Sagan on the 4th Dimension

Dr. Quantum on Flatland

I was about to create my own "romance" about the circle and the sphere, perhaps I will develop it into a graphic novel of sorts in the future. But this "geometry of faith" has truly added a new dimension to the phrases "Christ Passing By" and "God Among Us" and has even brought me closer to understanding, at least in its basic form, certain mysteries, for example, the Holy Trinity. But most of all, I think, these books by C.S. Lewis and Abbot, though in the form of fiction, serves to create in us a kind of humility… an acceptance that there is something greater than us… to us… to our lives… and indeed we need a leap of faith to believe in this greater…or rather infinite dimensionality and the hope that we can be part of it.

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimension may be downloaded online through the following links:

• Flatland, available at Project Gutenberg.
  
• Flatland (with ASCII illustrations), available at Project Gutenberg.
  
• Flatland with illustrations (html format, one chapter per page)
  
• Flatland 5th edition 62 pages, no illustrations, pdf format
  

Walking the Road to Emmaus…

Last week's Sunday Mass (April 29, 2007) was a unique experience. Not only did I run late for the 7PM mass at the Antipolo Cathedral (I had to wait for my sisters Gelyn and Sigrid, who seem to have no idea how long the commute to the cathedral takes), but the mass there took an unusual 2 hours to finish. It was after all a high mass, celebrated by the priests of the diocese. And it turned out to be more than just an ordinary high mass (because as I recall, there was no special feast day that day), but it was made more special because it was the first mass being led by a newly ordained priest. Gelyn and Sigrid were obviously devoid of any trace of energy they had earlier, since they really weren't expecting the mass to take this long, and be attended by so many people. But I found the mass quite meaningful, uncomfortable though it was. After the mass, relatives and friends of the newly ordained priest gave away prayer cards which featured the exact drawing shown above: "The Breaking of the Bread at Emmaus" by the icon painter Nicholas Papas. It immediately reminded me of one of my most loved story: The Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:15-36).

I related in an earlier blog how many Catholics seem to have numerous questions about the celebration of the Mass, often leading them to have misconceptions about this. This lack of understanding, I think drives one to lose impetus in sincerely participating in the Mass. One gets easily distracted and bored (to sleep!)

In fact, the readings and gospel nowadays have been very fascinating. The Acts of the Apostles is one of the main books of source for the readings recently, and for those familiar with the book, it tells the story of the Early Christian Church, how the disciples were spiritually moved to spread Christ's story of redemption beyond the borders of their familiar world amidst persecution and even death. This is an impressive transformation, because within weeks after Christ's death, these were the same people who were hiding, confused, doubting and even oppressing each other. They were like sheep that had lost their shepherd. The two disciples walking in the road to Emmaus was among the sheep, so lost and distraught in faith, they even failed to recognize that the third person who accompanied, spoke and dined with them was already Jesus himself! Jesus had numerous appearances, and this was one of them, but it is quite interesting to note that in most if not all of these appearances, the disciples and their friends always failed to initially recognize him (John 20:11-18, Luke 24:35-48, John 21:1-14, Mark 16:9-15). These disciples were friends of Jesus who accompanied him in most of his ministry life, and yet they failed to recognize him, even at close, during a long 7-mile trip to Emmaus! Quite puzzling isn't it? But to put it quite simply why this could be so, the disciples just weren't expecting him. For them, he was just another man travelling on the same road. Jesus, whom they were expecting to be the Messiah, the hopeful ruler of Israel who would deliver them from Roman rule was dead – a missing body in an empty tomb. This led me to think how I myself could have failed to recognize Jesus in my daily routine. Could I have been too focused on my own expectations and selfish thoughts that I have failed to see that Jesus had already been working in my life all this time? God works in mysterious ways, as the motto goes. Cliché it may seem, but it is perfectly true. We might just be surprised to realize that the person that we have often neglected (an annoying friend, a pesky street child, a parent or distant relative or a wary stranger) was Jesus all along… and the moment we realize it's him, he's gone before our midst (as what happened when the two disciples finally realized it was Jesus dining with them). In the end, we realize it is not important to see him with our own physical eyes, but to seek him with eyes of faith, recognizing him in every person that we will encounter in our lives. As with the gospel today, this reminds me of a verse from a song from Les Miserables that goes "To love another person, is to see the face of God."

In my own quest in finding meaning for my practice of the Catholic faith, I found a refreshing take on the Emmaus story, one that revitalized my outlook on the Mass, particularly the Liturgy of the Word (the part of the Mass, where we listen to the reading/s, the psalms, the gospel and the homily). Scott Hahn wrote in one of the chapters in "Letter and Spirit: From Written Text to Living Word in the Liturgy" that "Nowhere is the relationship between the Bible and liturgy presented so vividly and succinctly as in the Bible itself, specifically in Luke's account of the conversation on the road to Emmaus." He states that although Luke did not present the exact contents of what Jesus told the disciples in the story, he relates how distinctly Jesus used a certain method: "beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself." This teaching method adopted in revealing God's divine plan in a manner understandable by humans is theology (or economy) in basic form. Interestingly, Jesus places himself in the picture as the culmination of the prophecies, and the ultimate "types" (typology) of the old scripture characters. The disciples, feeling their "hearts burn" as they are opened to the scriptures, asked Jesus, still a stranger to them, to dine with them. At the table, as Jesus breaks the bread and gives the pieces to them, the disciples finally gained complete understanding (mystagogy). At this point, Jesus vanished out of their sight. But the disciples were not disheartened. In fact, they related what they had experienced with the other apostles.

It is interesting to note that the story identifies so much with the structure of the Mass. The teaching on the road corresponds to the Liturgy of the Word. Notice how most readings which features heavily the Old Testament connects to the gospel which is solely taken from the New Testament. As with the manner Jesus taught the two disciples, the scriptures had to be understood and read canonically, that is in the light of God's plan – how the old scriptures (the Old Testament readings) culminate in Jesus' ministry (the New Testament gospels). The homily aims to bridge an understanding between the read scriptures, how it relates ultimately to our own present lives. What's more interesting to note is that, the purpose of the liturgy is not only to remember what has happened (thus simply relegating it to the distant past), but to actually relive it. As what Jesus did in the breaking of the bread at Emmaus, the Liturgy of the Word culminates in the Liturgy of the Eucharist. It's as if we were at the Last Supper itself and every instance of the breaking and partaking of the bread thereafter!

With this knowledge, I now find it difficult not to focus in each aspect of the Mass. I find beauty at the convincing logic in the celebration of the Mass and thus being convinced intellectually, the spirit easily follows! I no longer judge the Mass by the quantity of emotional boost I get from it but the mere participation in it, "together with the choirs of angels and saints" is enough for me. It's funny, I know I've been taught all these since I was a kid being raised in a Catholic school, but it took me until 30 years old, to finally appreciate what I have been doing for nearly two decades. And I know it doesn't stop there and I won't stop asking, the mystery is just beginning to unravel.

Transposition...

In one of my favorite essays by C.S. Lewis, entitled "Transposition” , Lewis explains how we as human beings can become so fixated, or in my terms, desensitized with our present physical and emotional experience that we forget or at times even deny the existence and potential of a richer spiritual experience. This idea is a recurrent theme evident in most of Lewis' fictional works such as the “Chronicles of Narnia”, “The Great Divorce” and many more. He defines “transposition” as the permutation of a higher-level experience or concept to a lower-level or vice-versa. For example, you would use more words in a language with limited vocabulary to translate the same word from a language with richer vocabulary. A person who has heard a symphony with full orchestration and wants to share this experience to a friend who hasn’t heard it before will usually hum or whistle the tune to his friend especially if this is the only available way to do so. The problem with this is that the friend will never ever fully realize the richness and vivacity of the original orchestral piece through a monotonic rendition (that is the whistle or the humming) especially if he hasn’t heard it before, or worse, had a poor sense of musicality. In fact, it is possible, that the friend may even attempt to compare this to a tune that is more familiar to him, but may not necessarily be so, thus exposing the potential futility of such an attempt. On the other hand, the friend who has heard the symphony before will be able to recall and even relive the full experience of the orchestral piece in his own mind. Lewis further illustrates “transposition” through various examples, such as the attempt of a mother to describe to her child, who was born into a dungeon with no windows, the outside world through words and pencil drawings. The higher concept here is the “outside world” which the mother wants her son, who had no prior experience of the “outside world” at all (therefore has no idea what it looks or feels like) to experience. Through “words” and “pencil drawings”, tools or implements that in their situation, are the only available means, the mother attempts to do so. As you can see, these tools are means that the mother and child can commonly understand and share at their present situation. The mother tries to describe the bright sun, the lush trees and the colorful landscape of the “outside world” through grayscale lines and shades on a piece of paper. The child accepts this and recognizes this as an accurate depiction of the “outside world” and in fact grows more excited as the day that that they will eventually be free draws near.

With this, Lewis establishes the relationship of the spiritual and the physical world, where the spiritual, the higher mode of experience is manifested through the physical, the domain that we are most familiar with in our present state of life. Whenever people claim to have experienced a spiritual event, they almost always describe it through words usually associated to sensation (visual, auditory, tactile and sometimes, olfactory) or raw emotions, because these are the only ways they can be able to interpret these higher experiences to the general public (as the symphony person and the mother in the earlier examples). In fact, if asked how one would describe “heaven”, we would be able to create a list ranging from a cloudy paradise with cute cherubs to various states of positive emotions such as happiness and satisfaction. Most likely, these images have been shaped by our previous experiences and education, presented through depictions in books and stories by other people. Higher experiences seem to have very similar manifestations to certain psychological states and even psychiatric conditions (for example, being in the state of “glossolalia” - “slain in the spirit” in the charismatic movement lingo, or “speaking in tongues” shares similar symptoms with hysteria). This exposes the problem and difficulty in proving their authenticity and most importantly, their existence. A skeptic would always deny the presence of a higher state of being or the possibility of higher experiences. He would always explain things according to the meter stick familiar and available to him.

Recalling the mother-child dungeon story, questions can be raised whether the child will truly be able to appreciate the full glory of the outside world. Won't the child look for the same gray lines and scribbles that his mother drew on pieces of paper in the outside world? ("Mom, I can not see the lines that you drew, are you sure that is the sun or trees that you have been drawing and talking about?") How sure are we, that heaven will be the same heaven that we have imagined it to be when our time comes? Are we truly ready to appreciate God's glory, or are we too fragile and presently incapable to experience this or even recognize this experience? Does heaven and God exist at all, and can we prove this?!

In another imaginative imagery that Lewis utilizes, he compares this situation to the interior of a dark shed, with light beaming through a small hole . Placing ourselves inside this shed and assuming we are unaware of the existence of the outside world, the beam of light will be noticeable and may provide valuable clues. The skeptic seeing this beam of light would only be able to see this "merely" as a beam of light. A believer on the other and, will not only see it as a beam of light, but will attempt to peer within it, thus catching a glimpse of the branches of trees, the sky and the trees of the outside world through the little hole. Upon seeing this he will seek to be free to experience the outside world. The skeptic would always remain inside the dark shed.

The concept of “transposition” provides the defense, or a convincing explanation. Extending the idea, it insightfully provides more value to our present base experiences within nature in this lifetime as it is possible that through these, we get a glimpse of heaven, of beyond, and of God. But how sure are we that we can be free to be part of heaven, of beyond and to experience God? "Transpositon" provides a gateway towards the understanding and assumption of this experience - in the same manner that the incarnation of God as man (in the form of Jesus) provides HOPE of what mankind can achieve and is destined to be.