Reflecting On Thought: Part II

The human mind is ineffable.  As I was saying in the forgoing post, there is nothing that can be said about it, nor is there anything that can be known about it.  In this way, it is a true image of God, Who is likewise ineffable.  No, the only thing we can judge and analyze is the product of the mind, that is, thought, and all of this judgment and analysis is done by means of thought.  Modern psychology has no access to the mind itself.  All it can do is analyze thoughts and draw inferences from thoughts concerning the health of the mind.  It goes without saying, however, that all that has been accomplished in this case is to infer concerning the health of the thoughts and thought patterns (families of thoughts, we might say).  The mind remains unknowable.  Psychology claims to have access to the "subconscious" through a study of thought, but this, ultimately is a matter of faith.  There is no evidence that this claim is actually true.  For the most part, therapy is shown to help patients by means of exerting control over patterns of thought.  Recovering memories, and uncovering the roots of unconscious motivation reveals nothing about the mind, in the same way that revealing the contents of a very deep hole, and bringing those contents out into the full light of day, reveals nothing about the hole.  What relation do the contents of the hole have to the hole? Are the contents of the hole products of the hole? Did the hole produce them?

When we say the "mind" we mean, of course, the soul of man.  This is not to suggest that the mind is all that there is to the soul.  Actually, far from it. According to traditional Scholastic philosophy, for example, the mind (intellect) is numbered among the three high faculties of the soul along with Will and Memory.  This is also not to suggest that if one "loses one's mind" then one has lost one's soul.  The expression "to lose one's mind" really has nothing at all to do with the mind.  It means that one has lost the ability to think rationally.  Again, it is an assessment of thought and the powers of thought, not of the mind.

For all of the aforementioned reasons, some branches of Eastern philosophy, most notably Buddhism, rejects the reality of the self altogether.  This does not mean that followers of this way of thinking reject identity or the reality of the individual, but only that they realize that there is nothing essentially that they can point to, which is constitutive of the self.  According to their way of thinking, the self is not so a thing, but a process, like a river.  We call South America's largest river the Amazon.  We give it an identity, even though that which constitutes it is constantly changing, never the same.  In the same way, the self is constantly changing and never the same, as can be observed by the "river of thought" of flows through it.

Christianity, though embracing realism as a philosophical basis for practical purposes, recognizes that contingent beings are not real in the sense that Being (God) is real.  This is the very reason why St. Dionysius the Areopagite makes the rather shocking statement that it is just as true to say that God is not as it is to say that God is.  It is not that the God Being is simply many, many degrees greater than ours.  No, it is "Being" in an entirely different sense.  The only way that we understand being in this world is through the mechanism of cause and effect.  Every being is a cause, and every being is an effect.  We cannot conceive of being aside from these relationships, so we use language that suggests these relationships even in reference to God.

The Sunday of the Samaritan Woman: The Human Being is Made to Be a Deep Well and a Life-Giving Spring

In today’s Gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ tells His disciples: “My food is to do the Will of Him Who sent Me, and to accomplish His work.” In this place, Our Lord uses a Greek word “vroma,” which means food that is either permitted or forbidden by the Law, along with another similar word “vrosis,” which He uses to describe the Eucharist in another context.  “Vroma” and “Vrosis” are the translation of the Hebrew word “ma’akal,” which is a very ancient word, only found in the Books of Moses. 

     We have been baptized into Christ, and therefore we have hidden resources of strength and virtue, which transform us into “other Christs.” The Christian is a person who has been clothed in Christ, and thus becomes another Christ by the grace of God.

     In Christ, we have hidden resources of strength and virtue.  We have well in us, which becomes a fountain springing up to everlasting life.  The Greek Gospel uses two words to describe this well: “piyi” and “phrear.” “Piyi” is a spring, which flows of its own accord, but “phrear” is a deep well.  To draw water from such a well, one needs a rope and a bucket.

     Our hidden strengths are a fountain of living water, and a special, spiritual food. In the first place, we have the fountain of living water: the Mystery of Baptism.  When we consider this Mystery, we remember two images, given to us by the Holy Scriptures, which help us to understand the great gift of this Sacrament.  The first images is water, as in the Prophecy of Isaiah: “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

     Nevertheless, there is a great contrast between the rain and the snow, and the Lord’s Word, for the rain and the snow leave heaven and do not return there, but the Lord’s Word not only returns to Heaven, but also lives there continuously, even though it works on earth.  The imagery of the Mystery of Baptism is a water, which life to the earth, for Baptism becomes in us a fountain of the kind of water, which springs up to life everlasting, and not only for us, but for the whole world.  We see an illustration of this fact in the behaviour of the Samaritan woman. She brought all of the villagers to the Lord Jesus.  In the same way, we should bring all of our neighbours to Christ through our life of virtue.  Therefore, the water of Baptism becomes in us a rain or a snow, which comes forth from us as from heaven in order to give life to our world.

     The second element in the imagery of Baptism is light.  Often we call this Mystery Illumination when it is celebrated together with the Sacraments of Chrismation and the Eucharist.  The Mystery of Illumination—Baptism, Chrismation and the Eucharist—make us share in the identity of Christ.  St. Simeon prophesied that Christ would become “light of revelation to the Gentiles.” But, in Christ we also become a light of revelation to the nations.

     We also have a hidden strength, which come to us from our spiritual food—the Eucharist.  The Eucharist—the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ—strengthens the identity of Christ in us.  It gives us the virtues of Christ to accept the Will of God and to lead others to freedom from sin.  In the Eucharist, we have the strengthen to imitate Christ, that is, to imitate the Eucharist, and become offerings together with Christ for the salvation of the world, just as it says in the psalm: “Have they no knowledge, those evildoers, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call upon God?”

     In Christ, we have hidden resources of strength and virtue.  It is necessary for us to use these resources for our salvation and the salvation of all people.  It is necessary to water our world with the life-giving water, which, on account of our baptism, springs up in us unto life everlasting.  It is necessary to become a light of revelation for the nations, and to follow the example of the Samaritan Woman, bringing all people to our Holy Catholic Church.  It is necessary to receive strength from the Eucharist, in order to imitate the Eucharist, and become offerings for the salvation of the world and the glory of God.