One of the most remarkable features of human reality is how the supernatural relates to the natural. At once, the supernatural brings out what was somehow latent (and in a sense waiting!) in the natural, even as it stunningly transcends, and so also elevates and transforms it. This is perhaps nowhere so evident as in the mystery of the Incarnation of God celebrated on March 25.
I focus on one aspect: how the defining human experience of wonder now takes on a whole new importance. Aristotle says that philosophy, the pursuit of wisdom, begins in wonder. Broadly understood the pursuit of wisdom is at the center of human life. Whether in Socrates and Aristotle, or Sacred Scripture, we have attestation that life is about growing in wisdom.
It is beautiful to see, then, (we might say ‘wonderful!’) that the world around us is custom-fitted to elicit our wonder (especially in spring!). Wonder implies that we are deeply moved by what we see; we are struck, perhaps even struck dumb, speechless. At risk of making a misleading comparison, I think of how psychological trauma is sometimes defined: when a person has emotions so great that he cannot process them, and so he in a sense shuts down.
We might think of wonder as rooted in an experience that is like trauma but without the shutting down. We are so moved that something in us opens up. Yet, in this state we do become vulnerable. This is not surprising because wonder includes a strong desire to see more, with the fear we might not be able to.
In wonder, the beauty of the world knocks loudly at our door, and even makes bold to ask to come in. We find ourselves at a moment of decision: what will we do? Will we really open the door, and keep it open? Will we look even more intently, regardless of the abrasion it might cause in the sensitive areas of our soul?
Many there are who squeeze the door back shut, who turn away. Sometimes this might be because of trauma; we have learned to hold closed the door against what powerfully moves us. Sometimes it is a failure in courage, or simply in love.
There is much we (and especially parents!) can do to form ourselves and others to be ready and even waiting to open the door to wonder. Such formation always begins in loving people well, which invites them to open their hearts. In a wonderfully safe context.
So what then of the supernatural? Rev. Edward Leen penned the following:
“Undoubtedly, as long as any vestiges of faith remain, it is impossible that the most indifferent Christian should not feel some stirring of soul-shaking wonder when his mind is consciously brought to bear on the fact of God’s becoming Man.”
God’s becoming Man. Here is perhaps the ultimate knock at the door of our soul. This utterly supernatural event should elicit a wonder that is correspondingly supernatural. And so also a pursuit of wisdom that is supernatural.
Wisdom itself has leaped down to earth, come in search of those who should have been the ones searching. This is stunning. Awesome. Wonderful.
What next? What does one do in the face of this? Leen continues:
“Yet it is true that one needs a deep supernatural insight and a strong interior life to approach this fact with the never-failing, never diminishing but rather constantly growing surprise that it merits.”
That is good reason indeed to cultivate a strong interior life. Wonder, which already by nature constitutes a life-defining experience and call to pursue wisdom (as clearly seen by ancient philosophers), is supernaturally elevated through the Incarnation of God. At stake now is so much more.
Will we allow our soul to be moved—and shaken to its very foundation? Will we hold the door open as the bracing wind blows into our home, our heart, as it challenges and upends even as it heals and gives new life? Will do our part, consciously bringing our mind to bear on this reality, and cultivating the interior life it demands? We might then enter into “the never-failing, never diminishing but rather constantly growing surprise that it merits.” ~ ~ ~
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You lead me to contemplate wonder, and it leaves me speechless. Nevertheless, I did not want to let this post slip by without acknowledging its power. Thank you.
Thank you and you are so welcome, Ellen!
My mom had a stroke in February 2001. She was paralyzed on her left side and couldn‘t speak. Inexplicably, on March 24th, she called me (how was that possible)? Devoted to Our Lady, she told that a “beautiful woman” came in to tell her that she’d be going on a trip to a beautiful place. She hung up and I couldn’t reach back to her. She died the following day, ‘March 25th, the Annunciation.
I picked up my daughter from a sleepover party to tell her. She teared up and asked what time she died (a seemingly odd question from a young girl). 3 am, I said, then asked why. She was the last to fall asleep at 2:30. At 3 am she woke up because she thought she heard her grandmother say, I love you, Jessica.
You’ll never convince me that the “beautiful woman” was anyone other than Mary.
That’s my story of wonder.
Bob,
My mother passed on the feast of st Joseph in march of 2014, patron of the happy death. Naturally we asked her pastor to have her funeral mass on march 25th. My cousin an auxiliary bishop made a point in his homily of reflecting on the fact that in many facets of my mother’s life she to choose to say Yes to God and the direction the Holy Spirit took my parents in there walk with Christ and his Church!
Beautiful!
And what a wonderful story it is! Thank you so much for sharing, Bob.
Thanks