Holy curiosity

Holy Curiosity

Rev. Jerry J. Pokorsky

A useful definition of a dullard is one who lacks a sense of curiosity. But appearances can deceive. Dullness is sometimes in the eye of the beholder. Many people think accountants are dull. But this is because many people are not curious about the accounting profession and know nothing of the joy that an accountant feels when all the debits equal the sum total of credits.

A more useful distinction is between creative and destructive curiosity.

Destructive curiosity is misdirected. It can be defined as the curiosity that “killed the cat.” Herod’s evil busy-body curiosity about the Messiah born in Bethlehem resulted in the killing of the Innocents. But when curiosity is properly directed, the wheel is invented, spaceships are launched and mysteries are pondered and solved. It’s spiritually profitable to be curious about Christ.

The Magi had a praiseworthy curiosity even if their theology fell short. The astrology of the Magi held that a man’s earthly self is complemented by a heavenly counterpart, completing the human person. Every good man’s heavenly "double" developed together until death united the two. The sudden appearance of a new and brilliant star suggested the birth of an important person. The religion of the Magi was incomplete and they knew it. So in curiosity, they followed that star, seeking the Divine, and when they found the Child, they adored Him (cf. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09527a.htm).

Jesus is found in the Church and her Sacraments. Believing Catholics know the Church is “one, holy, Catholic and apostolic” and all salvation comes from the Church. Saint Augustine, of course, was curious as to who can be saved and how. So he wrestled with the question of membership and salvation in his tome, “The City of God.” If you share the same curiosity, read his book.

But the need for the Church in this world in working out our salvation should not be an occasion of arrogance. It’s merely a question of logic. Either Jesus spoke the truth when He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me." Or He lied. Jesus founded the Church on the rock of Peter, or He didn’t. And if you think Jesus lied, well, you’ll have to find another religious group to join. But why would anybody be a member of any religious group if he didn’t think of it as the “one, true, faith”?

The Church is also a curiosity piece with a treasure chest of spiritual gold, frankincense, and myrrh, with plenty of man-made distractions. The contents of the holy treasure chest also include lots of dust and useless trinkets -- the junk of our sins that we carelessly commingle with the treasure. Despite the sins of the members, the whole purpose of the Church is to teach us Christ and to lead us to life with Him in union with His Mystical Body. The more we ponder the details of the Gospel, the more we should be inflamed with a greater curiosity about Him.

It is the nature of properly directed curiosity to increase an appetite for new and wonderful things. But it is important for us to use our curiosity in holy ways. Even when our curiosity leads us down the wrong path, a healthy and honest curiosity, with God’s grace, redirects us back to His Way.

The great Flannery O’Connor was curious about the faith but her curiosity at times misfired. As a little girl, age 8, the nuns taught her that she had a guardian angel. With childish curiosity, she pondered the meaning of an ever-present guardian and she grew to resent it. She thought of her angel as a spy and a snitch. In the privacy of her room, she would thrash about trying to punch it. Later in life, her curiosity not only provided her with the energy to write magnificent short stories informed by the drama of the Fall and Redemption, she even made friends with the Archangel Raphael. She penned a beautiful prayer to him, a prayer that was at her bedside when she died. Flannery never lost a holy curiosity.

When we lose our curiosity about Jesus, we become complacent, presumptuous of His mercy, and stagnant in the spiritual life. And we easily turn to the world for new and exciting and often worthless things. So it is helpful to consider a tell-tale sign of spiritual stagnation.

The Old Covenant, summed up in the Ten Commandments, comes to completion in Jesus Who inaugurated the New and Everlasting Covenant. The Ten Commandments foreshadow and teach us about Jesus. The portrait of Jesus comes into focus with the Beatitudes. A stagnant spiritual life fails to connect these dots. If we fail to measure our lives by the Ten Commandments and fail to struggle to live the Beatitudes, our spiritual life has become moribund.

When we lose our curiosity about Christ, there is another dangerous possibility. We may be devout. We may be orthodox. We might even be virtuous. But without cultivating a spirit of holy curiosity, it is possible to ruin it all by relaxing, thinking we’ve come to the end of our mysterious journey, and holding others, less enlightened, in contempt. Saint Thomas Aquinas warned we can ruin it all by taking pride in our virtue. The dread sin of the Pharisees! Curiosity about Christ is nothing other than seeking the truth of Jesus and never relaxing our curiosity until we rest in Him.

There is a lovely legend about the Magi that rings true. After Jesus sent out the Apostles to baptize all nations, Saint Thomas the Apostle proclaimed the Gospel in Persia and baptized the elderly Magi into the Catholic faith. Their curiosity had holy consequences, leading them to their salvation in Christ.

On Epiphany, it is profitable to invoke the example of the Wise Men and their journey with a clever Christmas slogan: “Wise men still seek Him.” A holy curiosity about Jesus helps us to grow in His wisdom.