Sunday, January 22, 2012

Questioning in Bless Me, Ultima


There are many interesting questions about religion and morality in Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya. One of the scenes that really stuck out to me was the one during Antonio’s first communion. He is struggling with all these questions about faith and morality, he wants answers and he waits for God to speak to him about all these issues; but in the end all that he hears is silence and he just feels hungry from the morning fast. I often wonder when I go to church how many people have actually had God talk to them and answer the questions they pose, and if he does how does God answer.

But the more I think about how easy it would be if God just swooped down and told me everything I want to know about I wonder if that would really be the best thing. If one didn’t question, wonder, and doubt where would the joy be in finding answers. With God not answering every question we have we are given the freedom to think, the freedom to be independent people and make up our own minds using our own experiences and knowledge. Some of the questions that Antonio struggles with may seem answerless, and they may be, but often the journey to an answer can reveal many things about the world or ourselves that just receiving the answer from somebody else wouldn’t.

I read a little more about Anaya and found out that he was raised Catholic and that as a child he often raised difficult questions pertaining to faith. This intrigued me and got me wondering if he struggled with some of the same issues that Antonio deals with; it made me wonder if Anaya kept his faith into his later years, but I couldn’t find any information about his later religious affiliations. This book dealt with questions that I have no answers to right now, but I have a feeling I will be trying to answer them for quite awhile.

7 comments:

  1. Lynn, your questioning is something I can also relate to. I like what you said about there being no joy in finding answers if "God just swooped down and told me everything." I often think that answers to questions can come in many different forms and these are different for everyone. Perhaps I ask God for guidance and two different events happen that provide opposite "answers." Which one of these do I interpret as an answer from God? I often think that there are not answers, but instead just ways to better understand or view our questions.

    It is interesting to see Anaya's life once again mirrored in the experiences of Antonio. I wonder if Anaya's questions toward faith as an adult reflected Antonio's questions as well or if perhaps they reflected his questions as a child.

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  2. Lynn, I too resonate with the questions in the text. To be honest, I think Antonio's experience mirror my own particularly the parts where he questions a lot. As a child, I was curious... perhaps too curious for my own good. When I was first introduced to religion by my grandfather I had loads of questions... thanks be to God he was patient enough to satisfy them at that stage of my life.

    But I do take issue with our species in that we're always trying to figure things out. To this I say that some things are best left as a mystery such as God. Personally, I think there is something that our souls relate to whenever we think of mystery or the unknown. Perhaps this is our way of subconsciously humbling ourselves and surrendering ourselves to the Almighty. Our souls relate to the unknown or mystery because we take joy in finding answers ourselves, or having those "epiphanies". If life were not full of our personal epiphanies, I do not think it would be a life worth living.

    I am reminded of what Scripture says about mystery or the nature of God, "Peradventure thou wilt comprehend the steps of God, and wilt find out the Almighty perfectly? He is higher than heaven, and what wilt thou do ? he is deeper than hell, and how wilt thou know?" (Job 11:7-8) God is beyond our comprehension... and this is alright with me.

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  3. Ditto to what Becca said! I also resonated with what you said about the journey to answers - or even a journey without answers - being a worthy experience in and of itself. It reminds me of Goshen's former slogan about "the joy of the journey." Sometimes I feel like college is just an exercise in learning some things so that you realize how much father you really have to go. It might be fatalistic to think of life that way, but I think you're right in suggesting that searching for understanding can be as rewarding as knowing the answers.

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  4. What if God came down and answered all our questions? Sometimes I want answers to my questions but all I get is silence. However, I am really listening or am I searching for what I want to hear? I agree with what you said. There would be no joy in finding answers if God just told us everything. How would we learn and grow as a person if everything was just told to us? I think it’s intriguing that we all struggle with this questioning. Just by reading your post and the other comments, I see that we all mirror Antonio and each other.

    We question and sometimes we probably won’t get an answer. Like Zachary said, some things are best left as a mystery.

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  5. To me, I think that the journey to finding the answer is just as important as knowing the answer. I have had many of the same experiences Antonio has in trying to figure out what he believes. I have struggled with myself, trying to figure out what I truly believe. I connected when you said "if God just swooped down and told me everything I want to know about." Yes, I would know everything I've ever wanted to know, but there would be no more questions for me to discover. Like Zachary said, if there are no epiphanies, what would the journey of life be about?

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  6. Having God answer questions and answer prayers is something I have struggled with my whole life. I sometimes wonder. I believe in God. I pray. I attend church. I feel like I am a good christian. However, I also feel that I have never heard God talk to me. It is something that I find interesting. The people that say they have heard God make me wonder what they heard and how I would even know if it was God talking to me. I have thought about this a lot because sometimes I wish I would just hear God's voice.
    But I can also identify with that making it almost too easy. If God came and told us all the answers, how would we have faith? It would no longer be a question. It would no longer be a calling. It would be seeing it and knowing the facts. Faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you cannot see. It is believing in something that you can't see, touch, smell.... it requires faith. If he gave us the answers, it wouldn't be faith.

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  7. Lynn, your second paragraph is right on! So many people think we have the answers, or should have them, or that we will be given the answers--but life is really about exploring the questions. I love your point that our journey towards an answer will reveal countless new things that we would not have discovered if we had not been engaged in the search itself.

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