THROUGH UNTRUE
Fr. Rolando V. dela Rosa, O.P.
Imagination is one of our most unused, disused, and abused human faculties. The emphasis on cold, rigorous, and logical reasoning has somehow reduced imagination to a mental workshop for illusions and delusions.
Blame this on the influence of western philosophy that views reality in prosaic, mechanistic, and rationalistic way. Even Albert Einstein disagreed with this mindset when he wrote: “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to change and development.”
Indeed, most scientists say that modern inventions, like electronic gadgets and devices, were produced, not by way of discursive reasoning, but by remembrance, intuition, inspiration, and creative recasting of old ideas.
To understand better how imagination works, we must recognize that the human mind is thoroughly historical. It retrieves from the subconscious meaningful information that existed there before we began to use concepts and words. Through imagination, the mind revises (as in to see from a different perspective) and alters information, giving rise to ingenuity and innovation.
Imagination is one of the priceless treasures that God has given us. In our gospel reading today, Jesus says: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Luke 12:34). Sadly, our heart is no longer in our imagination. Many of us have ceased to dream our own dreams. We have allowed politics, business, social media, the entertainment industry, and the virtual world of computers to control our imagination. They tell us how to realize our fantasies. Worse, they have also succeeded in downsizing imagination into a commodity, which they sell for a price.
Just look at the billion-dollar gross receipts of sci-fi fantasy films and TV shows that we can now access through subscription-based streaming services like Netflix. Observe how celebrities, bloggers, and influencers attract millions of followers through photoshopped and seductive pictures of themselves. Everyday, the pornography industry stimulates many people's imagination, luring them to become sex addicts.
How impoverished our contemporary imagination has become! God gave us our imagination with a natural affinity to truth, but we have allowed it to fall under the spell of magical and grotesque thrills offered by our speed-loving, data-filled, sex-marinated, and violence-soaked culture.
If you come to think of it, many of our spiritual maladies today are not caused by a failure of logic, but by the lack or loss of imagination. We no longer know how to use imagination as a force for spiritual healing and renewal. We are perpetually distracted and busy with entertainment, social issues, economic problems, political bickerings, and trivial concerns. Hence, we fail to envision the quiet longing for order, beauty and peace that God has planted in our hearts. We find it difficult to imagine ourselves as champions of the basic virtues that make life worth living. We forget the sense of decency and integrity that saints and heroes of the past once exhibited.
Imagination functions well only with faith. We read in the Bible: “Faith is the confident assurance that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see” (Hebrews 11:1). Imagination visualizes what we believe and hope to be true. When Jesus preached, he awakened in His hearers a yearning for the Kingdom of God, not by logical explanations, but by parables. These stories made his listeners imagine a superabundance of meaning and possibilities.
Scientists see the greatness of the universe in terms of blackholes, active galaxies, dark matter, planetary systems and constellations created by a mindless explosion. A believer, using his imagination, will see it as the shadow of God's hand, outstretched lovingly towards us, replacing chaos with beauty and harmony.