The Finger that Points

Reflection by Fr. Earl Valdez for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Photo from Fine Art America

The late Fr. Roque Ferriols, SJ, in one of my first philosophy classes, goes back to two important figures when he talked about the use of philosophical reflection in relation to life. Paraphrasing both Confucius and St. Augustine, he compared this rich relationship as a finger that points to the moon, and said that all our reflections, thoughts, and insights, should always lead us to the richness of our daily life. It would be foolish, in the end, if we only remain stuck with the finger that points, instead of what it points to. 

Yesterday, some of us may have celebrated Valentine’s Day and have prepared so well to show our gestures of love and gratitude for our significant others. But have we ever thought about what they truly express and what they entail? Do they point and lead us to a greater promise of love for each other? Or are they just empty signs, only important on the day itself but not without greater significance in the times and places where one is actually called to love? Perhaps some of us are wise enough to see this, and perhaps some are fools to fall toward decorating our fingers but not exactly pointing to the moon. I wonder what we are between the two. 

The icon of Christ, the Pantokrator, carrying the Scriptures which symbolizes the preservation and the fulfillment of the Law. Photo from the St. Paul the Apostle Orthodox Monastery

This is also what the readings tell us today, but this time, the relationship of the Law and our faith with our ways of living. In the gospel, the Lord names examples of what it means to mistake the finger for the moon, the guide and pointer to a good life instead of the commitment to live a good life. On one hand, he does not say that the Law is abolished because of his presence, because they are authentic guides for our lives if we look at the way they were structured and how they lead us to form habits of goodness and virtue. 

However, they would remain useless if they are not followed and done for the true purpose for which they have been established and articulated, that is, becoming closer to the Lord through becoming more truthful, more loving, and more respectful people. What is the worth of the law against adultery, if we only follow it on the surface and not strive for chastity despite its difficulty? What is the worth of the orderly position and the elegant garments of our rituals, if they do not bring actual appreciation of the elegance and dignity of another person after we have celebrated our sacraments? And what is the point of reminding people of the truth and falsity of their oaths and words, when we ourselves bend and break them for our convenience? 

Our constant celebration of the sacraments always carry with it the hope that we grow in the faith and let it become our standard and basis for our everyday lives. Photo from the Quiapo Church Facebook page.

I believe that this is the perfect opportunity for us to be reminded of these things, especially when we proclaim that we are one in faith, and yet we end up being divided over our political and social preferences, even forming discord and division instead of engaging in actual conversations among ourselves. It is also a perfect opportunity for us to be reminded of the true meaning of our faith as Filipinos, and reflect on whether we really have lived our faith and let it influence our daily lives and decisions. It is an opportunity for us to look if we have actually looked beyond the finger that points us to reality, and actually live it. 

Let me end this short reflection on what the 17th century philosopher Blaise Pascal said when he pointed out that faith is not a matter of knowing how to know so much about God (because we actually don’t, in its totality) but to wager and make a whole-hearted decision to believe. In a way, his argument calls us not to multiply our proofs of God’s existence, but rather lead others in opening to His reality through forming habits that enable us to grow in greater faith. That does not mean that we “dumb down” our faith and reduce it as a pattern of habits and actions that do not mean anything for us. However, he leads us to a profound reflection on faith, that our understanding of it happens only when we first dare to live out the little that we know and believe so as to believe and understand more.

This is part of the original fragment (scanned and photocopied) where Blaise Pascal wrote the argument of the wager, which gave us an image of faith as a decision between infinity and nothing (infini-rien, as the heading of the fragment suggests). A scanned version of the original Pensees and its two existing compiled copies are found in the website of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France.

Perhaps that is the point that Our Lord leads us to reflect today: have we opened ourselves up to faith, and thus looked beyond the fingers that point to it and actually engage the reality of our messy and complicated lives, and look for His presence and grace there? May we reflect on living out our faith and confronting the reality of our lives from the eyes of faith, as we receive the Lord in the form of bread and wine, symbols that point us to the reality of His love and accompaniment. Amen.