THE SYNOPTIC PROBLEM

WHERE TO START?

So we start with inspiration and revelation. For there to be inspiration there has to be a theoretical language that can express the touching of a person by God. For a person to be inspired that person has to be touched by God and that person also need a language by which he can describe that touching.

All human beings carry about a set of words which they employ to describe, to justify their actions, their beliefs, and their lives. These are the words in which we formulate praise of our friends and contempt for our enemies, our long-term projects, our deepest self-doubts and our highest hopes. They are the words in which we tell, sometimes prospectively and sometimes retrospectively, the story of our lives. We can call these words a person's "final vocabulary." These are the words that an inspired person has to use to reveal God’s inspiration for neither that person or the community have any other words to understand that inspiration.

Nevertheless we have many vocabularies. The vocabulary of the teenager is remarkable different, depending on whether his mother is present or not. The vocabulary by which we create our own self image is necessarily private, unshared, unsuited to argument. However, the vocabulary of justice is necessarily public and shared, a medium for argumentative exchange. Thus the vocabulary that we are using depends radically on the situation we are in and also on our own background, thus giving rise to different ways of describing an event or an object, for example: “ An illustration used by Fulton Sheen in his 1950s television series, Life is Worth Living, remains in my memory. A man jumps off a bridge. Three observers give completely different accounts of the same event: the first is a physicist who speaks about the distance, speed, acceleration, duration, and impact of the fall from bridge to water; the second is a psychologist who discusses it in terms of inner drives, unconscious processes, and motivation; the third is a priest who views what happened through the prism of ethics and theology. The point Bishop Sheen made was that it is possible to give different accounts of a single incident; each presents the facts in its own way. The image reminds us that whenever we human beings attempt to speak the truth, we envisage only one aspect of the reality and so the result is necessarily partial.”

Our use of words, therefore, depends on the following factors. In describing these factors I shall try to illustrate them simply by reference to the Gospels, the Church, etc..

Imagination: Relating to our use of words is often a real lack of the use of the imagination, a reverent use which opens us to the possibilities of alternatives for our way of life and of our Christianity. Jesus always showed that he had an active imagination: where the Pharisees saw one way he could imagine an alternative. An underdeveloped imagination can imprison so much of our energy that we cease to be vibrant, creative persons. Seeing differently is at the very centre of discovering matter to be discerned. Study can help us in developing a greater vocabulary and this will assist us in describing what is happening in our imagination.

Fear is also one of the strongest hindrances to this process.  Fear can be so filled with energy that we are afraid to love. Fear can impede the use of freedom in our lives. Fear can so often be arouse when we are touch at the depths of our being to bring about a transformation - conversion in our lives that will bring new energy into our lives. When a fear is experienced intensely, it can so often become the whole of reality for that person so that the experience of one form of behaviour within the Church becomes the whole Church. Such an attitude destroys our ability with words and so we can become people who hang on or depend upon a fundamental attitude to reality. Thus we find a restriction in the vocabulary that they use.

Theological: Our image of God and the way we describe that image can be one of the fundamental hindrances in trying to attempt an understanding of the Scriptures. It is so important that we have some knowledge of the operative image of God that we use in our lives, for this can, and often does, colour all our religious stances. Further our image of God depends on the words that we are able to call upon for the description of our Image of God. Our words are so important in our description of reality and our contact with it. Words are the way we can come in contact with reality. Because of our poor ability with the use of words, negative images of God will block my own personal responsibility for making significant choices in my life. A theology (Words about God) that is static can further affect how we see things: old theologies as well as new theologies need to be examine critically with an on-going reflection so that one's spiritual background is founded on a vibrant, living perspective.

Sociological: We are also influenced by the mores of the society in which we live: how it lives valuewise.  These are also expressed in words. Again if we just blindly accept these values, then we will certainly have an obstacle to our understanding Scripture. Blind acceptance of the mores of any society is not a helpful state to be in and thus these mores need to be examined critically.  There is so much in our society that is purely arbitrary and not an absolute.  The same can be said of large amounts of what has been said to be  absolutes in the life of the Church.

Prayer: Prayer is our personal relationship with God and it is with words that we relate to God in our hearts. Prayer is the context of one’s personal relationship with God. Our prayer can be deepen by our greater facility with words of relationships.

Psychological: Each of us are products of our pasts with all the various aspects of the culture in which we live.  These factors can be acting either consciously or unconsciously.  These factors will greatly influence the words that we use. A person view of the situation and words that he/she uses to describe that situation will so often depend on his past formation. We can also note that to a large degree the motivations for doing many of the things that we do comes unconsciously from these pasts. So when a person says "That is how I view the situation, they can often be arguing from a "defensive, limited and self-opinionated viewpoint.  Unfortunately one is condemned to exactly that -- only that person's perception of a particular life experience.  Additional and contrasting perceptions are barred from qualifying the original perception thus impeding not only dialogue, which it does, but ultimately a deeper awareness of truth which is the fruit of many contrasting perceptions, ideas and imaginings."  Such a biased perception can defeat, and make extremely difficult, the whole learning process.

(to be continued)