In a Mirror, Dimly
Healing our Gaze
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.
1 Corinthians 13:12
I’m not entirely sure why I am perpetually fascinated by this subject, but it has to do with the phenomenon of error. When I was a small child, I had learning disabilities, and it caused me to have great difficulty spelling, reading, and spatially working out tasks. Having sisters who did not have the same difficulty, I, at an early age began internalizing my own failures as a sign I simply wasn’t trying hard enough.
When I was working on my Master’s in Systematic Philosophy, I was suggested a book by a Thomist by the name of Herman Reith, who explained that this approach to error was the same as Descartes. The technical way to describe his point was that Descartes had reduced all objects of knowledge to simple essences, which implied that if one makes an error it was automatically a moral failure due to a lack of effort on the person thinking. When I read that, I couldn’t help but feel frustrated with such an intellectual prideful disposition. Herman Reith continued in his “Introduction to Philosophical Psychology” that Aquinas admitted that error in humanity would also be caused, innocently due to man’s complexity, and the real complexity of things in themselves.
There is a lot to nuance here, but I suppose the point ultimately was that we as human beings can err for a few reasons - and for that reason I’d like to make this post to go deeper into this matter of error.
Dialectical Errors
The Church often develops its developed doctrine from first principles revealed in both Natural Revelation, and Divine Revelation. As a result of these first principles, we then discover a series of conclusions that result. For instance, in human law we ensure safety on the roads with various laws, speed-limits, and enforcement in order to serve a 1st principle of reason: the right to life, and the protection thereof. However, if a Tornado would be behind you as you were driving, using the speed-limit would likely not be prudent, and the law would itself reflect that in such extenuating circumstances. In this sense, things are “complex” when it comes to doctrine. For instance, can a person be saved if they are not Confirmed? According to St. Thomas Aquinas, yes, if the person has not rejected the Sacrament of Confirmation out of malice. Vatican II develops various doctrines regarding the Dogmatic view that there is “no salvation outside of the Church” for instance, while nonetheless maintaining that notion, while not falling into Feeneyism. These types of error I would consider “dialectical errors” where our own reasoning fails to incorporate nuance, where it applies as such. In this way, we often see fundamentalists over-simplifying matters to avoid the rigorous work of the theologian, or the lawless who likewise over-complicates things through ambiguity and equivocation in order to “liberate” their conscience from the confines of truth. Nonetheless, it is also possible, at least to the non-Cartesian thinker that innocent errors can be made. For this reason, as Catholics, we submit our intellect and will to the Holy Spirit through the Pillar of Truth.
Interpersonal Error
The heart is devious above all else;
it is perverse—
who can understand it?
Jeremiah 17:9
A wounded heart cannot see things clearly when it remains unhealed or unpurified by charity. We have defensive mechanisms that cause us to act in ways that we are not even conscious of, when we lack self-awareness. The patterns that develop in our thinking in early childhood often get bent, contorted, and twist the mirror we look through, so that light only dimly reflects back to our perception. The Church has, for a long time, admitted that we are not rationalists, capable of having some pure and perfect knowledge about ourselves, about God, and about one another. This doesn’t dismiss the possibility of certain knowledge about some matters, such as the existence of God, or simple substances. That is often a paradox or contradiction to many, and it requires, as most things, much nuance to explain (metaphysical sciences, etc). Nonetheless, knowledge is not cast into a myopic categorization of “either you can know everything or nothing at all.” Such rationalism in Descartes, and doubt in Hume need a middle position, which is the moderate realism of the Thomistic position. Yet, when we examine that those who enter into theology themselves are persons with a heart affected by relationships, we must admit that there is a further layer to explore here.
Error arises innocently/culpably when a person has developed various coping mechanisms that naturally arise from living in a fallen world. Perhaps trauma makes it difficult for a person to confide in a priest at the confessional, and this underlies various rationales about “confessing directly to God.” Perhaps abuse prevents a person from seeing the opposite sex in the way God intended them, and generalizations, fears, and various experiences lead to automatic interpretation of other’s behaviors. While the mind may be able to examine the Church’s teaching separately in that dialectical sense, it does not mean that the heart will not influence the person’s thinking in some sense. Further, just because one may be able to surrender to the Church’s teaching, this does not necessarily mean the person is free to follow their conscience. The heart still needs to be freed from those lies.
A Socially Warped Mirror
Do not be deceived:
“Bad company ruins good morals.”
1 Corinthians 15:33
We live in an increasingly secular world, in which the narrative, which is consumed in both social media, news, and forms of entertainment provide an objectively twisted notion of the Church’s teaching. The narrative of many in the LGBTQ+ community, for instance, insist that calling homosexuality a “disorder” as noted in the Catechism of the Catholic Church implies that we deny their existence or are somehow seeing to destroy that person with such violent speech. When discussing the ordination of women, the church is viewed through this cracked mirror of chauvinism. As a result of these false narratives, when the Church practices her own faith, such narratives of artificially injected into her practices, when in all innocence the Church condemns unjust discrimination and chauvinism.
What fuels such a narrative would be the poor witnesses that do exist, when those who have a same-sex attraction are not accompanied, or are bullied, and derogatory explanations are offered as to why women cannot be ordained. Perhaps there are also bad teachers, who present the Church’s teaching in a bad light, validating erroneous positions, or those who teach so poorly that you can intuit their lack of charity. Such interpersonal experiences that inflict wounds only fuel the false narrative about the Church’s teaching and become a stumbling block that may merit a mill stone. Priests who have abused their power, sexually, financially, socially, and so forth, will also contribute to the warped mirror from which we see the Church’s teachings, and more importantly: Christ.
Healing
Although this warped mirror will never be fully restored in this life, healing can contribute toward seeing things more clearly. I would say that in order for our perception, and interpretation to become clearer and healed, we need to begin by admitting of how our perceptions are in the first placed warped. We then need to take responsibility over this state of our heart. Then we need to submit it to Christ for healing. We do not heal by putting a wall around our wounds and keeping the healer out. This is not to say that such a defensive mechanism doesn’t serve us well as a child, or for a time. But eventually we do need to return to the wound with Christ, so that we can see it as Christ sees such a wound.
For those, with anxiety, for instance, many are encouraged to expose themselves to what causes them grief. But as a Christian we do not merely want to renounce the lie that exists within our various coping mechanisms, we want to infuse them with the love and truth of Christ, who patiently, gently, and generously seeks to bring relief and healing to the soul. Christ wants to see our desires addressed in healthy ways, so that we can obtain to the clearest Vision of Himself - where true bliss and ecstasy is discovered. He also wants us to be healed in our relationship with ourselves and others, where we can see others as Christ sees them - but this is often stunted when we are stuck in a wounded and unhealed place.
Conclusion
There is much more that can be said here, but I think it illustrates why God is so patient, and why we must also learn to be patient with one another. None of that means putting up with abuse or disavowing prudent boundaries. But it does mean not immediately demoralizing others for error, but seeing them as caused by a wound that may at its root be due to someone else’s sin, and the effect it has on our own heart and mind. Such errors might be the result of a sinister type, but I might suggest that is often quite rare. Such errors could be the result of one’s own vices, and our own personal sin. But errors can also result from the fact that things are complex, and we need further dialogue to continue to sort them out. In some cases, perhaps more than one thing is happening within man at the same time, making it all the more complex to overcome our errors. But in either case, we as Christians must submit them to Christ, and look for healing so that one day our perception of reality will be purified in such a beautiful way that we can now more readily gaze upon His unveiled face.