Off the deep end V
October 13, 2005
It’s fairly easy to understand physical reality, the reality of the body. Just reach out and touch something. Likewise we know something about the thoughts served up by our minds and how they determine how we act. The spiritual reality is the hardest to get a grip on, and here I return to Blaise Pascal. He uses the word “charity” to describe this third level of reality.
The infinite distance between body and mind symbolizes the infinitely more infinite distance between mind and charity, for charity is supernatural.
…All bodies together and all minds together and all their products are not worth the least impulse of charity. This is of an infinitely superior order.
Out of all bodies together we could not succeed in creating one little thought. It is impossible, and of a different order. Out of all bodies and minds we could not extract one impulse of true charity. It is impossible, and of a different, supernatural order.
Peter Kreeft, in his explanation of the above, says: “Charity” = agape, the kind of love that is God’s essential nature and God’s essential work in the world and in human hearts.
Pascal’s third level of reality, the spiritual, is more or less what I had in mind when I dove off the deep end. It is intensely religious in nature, basically thinking God’s thoughts after him, consistent with the mind being the link to the spiritual reality.
Absent more comments that call for a response, I’ll try to bring closure to this series in the next Off the deep end post.
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