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A man asked his spiritual Teacher, "What happens after death?"
"How should I know?" replied the Teacher.
"Because you are a Teacher," replied the man.
"Yes, you're right," said the Teacher, "but I’m not a dead one."
St. Thomas Aquinas taught that we are to move from, or through, the sacramentum to the res. The sacramentum is the sign. The sign signifies something other than itself. Res is the reality, Reality; what the sign signifies.
The incompleteness of much religion consists in persons making final and absolute the sacramentum. In this incompleteness, then, persons miss entering the challenges and joys of immediacy with Mystery. Popular religion, of all faiths, leaves persons at the signs, and most in religion seem either unaware of or afraid to experience the res.
The above story exemplifies the humbled ignorance of a spiritually insightful person. “Humbled ignorance” is not a first ignorance, but a second ignorance.
The first ignorance is a not knowing due to never having had experience. For example, I do not know what it feels like to walk on the moon, for I have never walked on the moon. I, however, can act like I know what it feels like to walk on the moon, after reading books about walking on the moon, seeing video of someone walking on the moon, or hearing a lecture from someone who walked on the moon. A danger of first ignorance is persons claiming to know without having experience that validates the knowledge. Some persons seem to think that the more conviction they have that something is true, then, the more they can be certain that it is true. However, truth is not dependent on the intensity of assertion or conviction. This first ignorance is not always bad, however, for at times we need something helpful to affirm belief in as we grow into experience. Often, in other words, sincere belief precedes true, enlightened faith.
Second ignorance pertains to having experienced something. However, this ignorance applies to our inability to conceptualize or communicate logically the profundity and mystery of the immediacy of the experience itself.
I will share a story to illustrate second ignorance. A young lady comes from a land where the people have never seen a rose. Someone shows her a rose and lets her smell its scent. She delights in the look and smell. Excitedly, she returns to her home. She begins trying to tell about the beauty and scent of the rose. The people look at her confused, as she tries to explain the rose by using the language of her people. Finally, she realizes, after getting very frustrated, that she can only give some hint of the rose and through her experience of the rose. Some of the people get the hint and want to experience it themselves, some leave totally confused and frustrated, some leave taking everything she said literally, having arrived at a total misunderstanding of what she was signifying, and some leave refusing to believe a rose exists, for they have never experienced a rose and cannot grasp this something the young lady is so enthused about. Over time other persons decide to go to where they can see and smell a rose. They, too, come back to tell about their experience. And, they, like the first young lady, get the same variety of responses.
Therefore, at the level of sacramentum, or sign, we can communicate about the sign. We cannot, however, communicate clearly about the res, the reality or Reality signified by the sign. Why? For the Reality signified transcends the affective and logical processes pertaining to the dimension of signs. When one experiences the res, one moves into a whole new dimension of experience, one that human language and logic are not apt to define or describe. Because res transcends discursive reason, many Westerners attribute such spiritual reality to childish superstition, something like a crutch for the less-enlightened-than-they-are people. Sadly, these so-called reasonable persons are defining reason by their own little brains, and that, to me, is not very reasonable.
When we try to define and describe the res, we find ourselves trying to do so by using words, symbols, metaphors, … that belong to the domain of signs. Therefore, our attempt to explain the res by referring back to the sacramentum leaves us where we started; that is, unable to speak directly of the reality. However, the fact that res transcends reason only means that it is a more encompassing reason, not that res is unreasonable. To deny the reality of res, or reality, by logical argument is like an acorn explaining away the oak tree simply because the acorn has not yet experienced itself as an oak tree.
I myself had to grasp this distinction between sign and reality in order to remain a Christian and pastor, as well as to know how to be open to the religious insights of other persons outside my faith. However, even more, I had to know it to respect the limitations of my faith and, as truly, the richness of my faith tradition (Indeed, generally, those who criticize Christianity judge it on its social failures alone and evidence little if any insight into the res that it introduces sincere, faithful seekers to. Thus, I am mostly unimpressed with the supposedly insightful objections to the Christian faith and to religion in general.).
The sacramentum of the Christian faith opens to a profundity of thought and experience of res that astounds me. The Christian life, for me, is a Journey of increasingly being mystified at the wonder of the Mystery. I have come to know myself, as a Teacher and pastor, to be living out the second ignorance. This ignorance is a humbled admission that I can only speak of, embody, and teach practices pertaining to the res, but the mystery of the Real means I cannot understand it or help anyone else understand it. I, gladly, enjoy giving hints and celebrate that is all I can do for others.
Spiritual Exercise
1. How might appreciating the difference between sign and reality help you in your spiritual Journey? … help you in relating with persons who differ with you on religious matters?
2. Have you had moments when you experienced the reality through the sign? Take one example and, as best you can, explain what the experience was like for you.
3. What signs does your faith tradition have to help persons experience the Sacred? Which signs seem to help you most to experience the Sacred?
4. Reflect on the opening story. What does the story say about second ignorance?
5. Read Mark 15.37-39? How does the tearing of the curtain in the temple speak of moving beyond the sign to the reality?
6. Generally speaking, are leaders in your faith tradition skilled at leading persons to experience the res? Explain your answer.
7. What signs might you use daily in private devotion to help you experience the reality, God?
Prayer
Spirit,
teach me how to rest in faith,
affirming what I know,
admitting when I do not know,
and celebrating what I can never know in this lifetime.
Save me from the facile conviction that is a defense against faith,
Teach me the faith that can equally embrace uncertainty and certainty.
*Brian K. Wilcox
OneLife Ministries is a pastoral outreach and nurture ministry of the First United Methodist Church, Fort Meade, FL. For Spiritual Direction, Pastoral Counseling, spiritual formation workshops, Christian meditation retreats, or more information about OneLife, write Rev. Dr. Brian K. Wilcox at briankwilcox@comcast.net.
Brian's book of mystical love poetry, An Ache for Union, can be ordered through major bookdealers.
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