I was so happy to one day download a video clip of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” from the Internet. It was an animated version I had seen when I was maybe around 10 years old. I wondered what some of the students who chatted with me would say about the cartoon we enjoyed back then.
I was happy to know that they were eager to see it. Before showing them the clip, I explained that back then there were no CDs, DVDs, USBs, or Internet downloading that allowed one to leisurely watch or listen to things over and over again. Now everything is at your ‘finger clicks’.
After this brief introduction, I clicked on the video file. I noticed how excited the boys were to see something from my childhood. As the first music-accompanied animated characters came out, the students started laughing. “Hey, Father,” one observed, “was this the kind of cartoon you had back then?” This was followed by more laughter. Another guy said, “Aslan is like a poodle. The cartoon is unbelievably flat and so animatedly ‘boring’!”
I was surprised at their reaction and even more dismayed when they easily disconnected from the show. Some began to pull out their phones to either check or send a message. At first, I couldn’t reconcile how their generation could not appreciate something that I personally found more expressive and substantial than their favorite yellow spongy hero called Bob.
I, however, didn’t reveal my disappointment because I believe that this was only natural for their generation. Besides, after seeing the recent computer generated images rendered in Hollywood’s version of the ‘Wardrobe’, I guess they have all the reason to judge that my childhood cartoon is pretty flat and flimsy.
I, however, learned another lesson yet. As a ten-year old boy I was raving about the Narnia cartoon and enjoyed repeatedly watching it. But, that was all there was to it. I mean, I never even asked where the movie was based on or who even wrote the story. It would be many years later (I’m ashamed to admit this) in college that I finally devoured the entire Narnia series.
If I had been more inquisitive or ‘adventurous’ to go beyond the cartoon, then I would have discovered a literary world. Unfortunately, I was satisfied and comfortable with simply watching it over and over again. I ‘entered the wardrobe’ and never got out. The story and world of Narnia, the intriguing characters and the C.S. Lewis himself were never unveiled deeper for me. I had lost the opportunity of enriching my imagination and creativity. It was coming out of the wardrobe and never going back.
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I believe something similar occurs in the adventure that our faith invites us to engage. As children our experience of faith includes being ‘attracted’ to the wonderful impressions about God, angels, numerous marvelous and heroic events, etc. But later on in life, we could begin to see them as ‘flat and boring.’
This is not because the faith has lost its relevance or power. Rather, we have grown less sensitive to it, or worse, we haven’t even bother to learn and apply it deeper in our life. It was like a ‘cartoon’ we watched, enjoyed and cherished as an inspiring childhood memory (though never totally rendered useless) only to be emotionally retrieved when life has some sudden unexpected hills or curves.
In Benedict XVI’s apostolic letter Porta fidei the idea that one must live the ‘journey of his faith’ is constantly repeated. He says, “The “door of faith” (Acts 14:27) is always open for us, ushering us into the life of communion with God and offering entry into his Church. It is possible to cross that threshold when the word of God is proclaimed and the heart allows itself to be shaped by transforming grace. To enter through that door is to set out on a journey that lasts a lifetime. It begins with baptism, through which we can address God as Father, and it ends with the passage through death to eternal life. (no. 1)”
We cannot therefore consider our faith to be a door that we casually pass through and leave behind. It is a reality that ‘journeys with us and transforms us’. This is because it will “shed ever clearer light on the joy and renewed enthusiasm of the encounter with Christ. (Ibid., no. 2)”
The adventure of our faith begins with the ‘advent’ of our Lord who initiated this journey for us. In the first place, He unlocked the door of salvation –He Himself is the way and gate– for us. This is not just a simple passage. It is both a human and divine reality that extends from our Lord’s Incarnation until His Ascension into Heaven. Our Lord had, so to speak, ‘fleshed out’ the way for us, in our journey towards Heaven.
This means reminds us that our faith is not only something to be intellectually learned or absorbed. It requires that our wills are awakened and engaged to make it a living faith. Thus, Benedict XVI urges us “to discover the deep bond between the truth we profess in the Creed and our daily existence, so that these truths may truly and in practice be—as they have always been—light for our steps through life, water that irrigates the parched stretches on our path, life that gets the better of some arid areas of life today. (Audience, October 17, 2012)”
This path of faith that we must daily tread is summarized in the points we profess in the Apostle’s Creed. And we do not travel it alone because Christ, our Good Shepherd, walks with us. In fact, in the course of this adventure one has the wonderful opportunity of “knowing God, meeting him, deepening our knowledge of the features of his face is vital for our life so that he may enter into the profound dynamics of the human being. (Ibid.)”
In this voyage, the Holy Spirit also inspires the Church to enrich the road with the wealth of Her liturgy. Advent, for example, marks the beginning of a new liturgical year. This beginning is a preparation for the birth of Christ who ‘journeys our humanity so we may journey his divinity’ by becoming one of us in everything except sin. Advent culminates with Christmas which then invites us to a childlike conversion.
After the seasons of Advent and Christmas comes what is known as Ordinary Time. This ‘season’ teaches us how our Lord embraced the most ordinary circumstances of life to divinize them. Here we journey with Christ during His public life, teachings and miracles. In this stage of our spiritual expedition, there are unlimited possibilities to grow in our faith like Jesus’ disciples learned from His words and actions.