Faithful analogy

THIS WEEK’S WINNER

MANILA, Philippines - Leonard Christian Go Loo graduated BS Psychology from Ateneo de Manila University last March. He works at the Manila Observatory as project assistant. “A lot of my friends call me kuripot but I am just being practical. I don’t enjoy spending money to buy material things that will eventually gather dust. I prefer to spend them on the things that matter, on experiences. I am what they call a nerd, and I am a proud one at that.”

Minutes before I started writing this essay, I Googled the phrase “church Dan Brown” and read the first three non-Wikipedia results that came up. I perceived a common feeling emanating from all three articles, and it was not a positive one. As you may have guessed, the negative feeling originated from the side of the Catholics (found in the articles) and was directed towards the books (The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons) written by Dan Brown, as well as the movies that were based on them.

Being a Catholic who has lived in the Philippines for all my life, and having studied in Catholic schools from elementary through college, I know what it is like to be taught about God and religion. I even had encounters with a fair number of people who are hardcore religious. These people would openly criticize things that are anti-Catholic just like those we regularly see in the news, and Dan Brown’s books are not an exception.

I have read all of Dan Brown’s novels. It is true that Brown presents a lot of controversial things (in the two books mentioned) that I, as a Catholic, can never accept. However, his novels cannot be reduced to something as simple as anti-Catholic. In my own experience, his novel, Angels and Demons, was able to speak to me as a Catholic more than most of the assigned readings I had in my old religion class.

One question at the back of every person’s mind who believes in an all-powerful and all-good God, as well as an arguing point of non-believers is this: If God is all-powerful and all-good, then why is there pain and suffering? If God were really both, then God would prevent us from experiencing pain and suffering. If God does not, then it is either because God cannot (meaning God is not all-powerful) or God chooses not to (meaning God is not all-good).

Brown brings this question up in the novel by having a young Swiss Guard (the official police force of Vatican City) ask a fairly young priest why there seems to be a contradiction in how God is presented in the Bible. God is said to be all-powerful (omnipotent) and at the same time all-good (benevolent). However, there seems to be a contradiction, namely, pain (e.g. man’s starvation, wars, etc.). The young guard proceeds by adding that if God loves us and has the power to change the situation so that we would not have to experience pain, God would do so. He then adds an important question at the end of his spiel, “Wouldn’t He?”

To his surprise, the priest answers, “Would He?”

The young guard then responds by saying that if God loves us, and also has the power to protect us, then God would have to do so. It is either God is all-powerful but uncaring or all-good but unable to help.

The priest replies with a series of questions. First, he asks if the guard has children; the guard answers no. He then asks the guard to imagine having an eight-year-old son, and then asks, “Would you love him?” The guard answers, “Of course.” He then asks if the guard would do everything in his power to prevent pain in his son’s life; the guard answers, “Of course.” He then asks if the guard would let his son skateboard; the guard answers yes, but that he would also tell the child to be careful.

The priest summarizes their short conversation by saying that as a father, the guard would give some good advice and let the child go and make his own mistakes. The priest then asks the guard, “But what if he fell and skinned his knee?” The guard replies by saying that the child would then learn to be more careful.

The young priest answers, “So although you have the power to interfere and prevent your child’s pain, you would choose to show your love by letting him learn his own lessons?”

“Of course. Pain is part of growing up. It’s how we learn.”

“Exactly.”

I knew I wouldn’t be able to do justice to the wonderful way Brown presented this analogy so I at least wanted to directly quote the ending of the short conversation presented in his novel. There is nothing more to be added since the idea is already presented very clearly.

As can be seen, Brown masterfully explains how God is both all-powerful and all-good. And yet, these are not the things being highlighted by people who attack Brown’s works. Dan Brown’s novel, Angels & Demons, has at least made this one reader understand his faith more.

This may not be a lot when it comes to talking about the whole novel, but what exactly do we remember from our favorite books and when we try “selling” them to our friends? Don’t we usually just mention that one part, maybe even just that one line from the book which struck us most, which spoke to us? For me, it wasn’t one line, it wasn’t the entire plot, it was this analogy.