A Walk with Holy Company
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
August 16, 2015
Biography
A contemporary of Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection from last week, he and Lawrence actually lived in Paris at the same time, although it's doubtful they ever met.
He and his younger sister were raised by their father after their mother passed away when Blaise was three. Their father was a government official, a tax collector, who taught him a great deal about mathematics and religion. He was a child prodigy in math, publishing papers in his teens. He made his reputation as a brilliant scientist and mathematician, making scientific contributions such as creating a calculating machine (predecessor to the modern calculator and computer), helping lay the groundwork for the calculus, developing a syringe based on what came to be known as Pascal's Law of fluid mechanics, along with other hydrodynamic inventions, and considerable research in vacuums.
Thanks to his father he was nominally Catholic, but he didn't pay much attention to his religious training through early adulthood, as he fully indulged himself in the worldly pleasures a young bachelor would find in Parisian society.
He was led into Jansenism when his sister entered a Jansenist convent and became a nun. The splinter group, later declared a heresy by the Catholic Church, had a very strict moral code, emphasizing inherent human wretchedness due to Original Sin, and the cleansing grace of God (they were sort of like Catholic Puritans).
His first religious work, The Provincial Letters, was a collection of 18 letters in defense of Jansenism against the attacks of more moderate Catholics, whom the Jansenists thought were too lax in their spiritual discipline and, therefore, corrupt.
By this time, Pascal had become a thoroughly committed Christian. The turning point was a powerful mystical experience he had on November 23, 1654, between 10:30pm and 12:30am. It resulted in what is called The Memorial, a writing he never shared with anyone, but kept on his person at all times until the day he died, eight years later. It is a confession and exclamation, filled with brief passages from the Bible that reminded him of the truths that could not be found in science. A parchment copy of it was found sewn into the lining of his coat.
I wrote it on the back page of my Bible a few years ago. I find it inspiring. Here it is:
FIRE
'God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob,'
not of philosophers and scholars.
Certainty, certainty, heartfelt, joy, peace.
God of Jesus Christ. God of Jesus Christ. My God and your God.
'Thy God shall be my God.'
The world forgotten, and everything except God.
He can only be found by the ways taught in the Gospels.
Greatness of the human soul.
'O righteous Father, the world had not known thee,
but I have known thee.'
Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy.
I have cut myself off from him.
They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters.
'My God wilt thou forsake me?'
Let me not be cut off from him for ever.
'And this is life eternal, that they might know thee,
the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.'
Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ.
I have cut myself off from him, shunned him,
denied him, crucified him!
He can only be kept by the ways taught in the Gospel.
Sweet and total renunciation.
Total submission to Jesus Christ and my director.
Everlasting joy in return for one day's effort on earth.
I will not forget thy word.
Amen.
His most significant religious writings are included in what is called Pensees (Thoughts, in English) – It consists of a collection of notes for a much larger work that was going to be a thorough and sustained defense of Christianity. Essentially, various editors gathered his notes on scraps of paper after his death. Even though Pascal never had the chance to pull his thoughts together and put them in order, and even though he would have included much more had he lived long enough to complete it, Pensees is considered a masterpiece and landmark of French prose. He surveys several philosophical paradoxes: infinity and nothing, faith and reason, soul and matter, death and life, meaning and vanity, reaching no definite conclusions besides humility in the face of God's greatness, ignorance (of the true nature of God) and God's grace. Included in this collection is his attempt to reason his reader into living as though he/she believed in God. It's called Pascal's Wager.
He says that everyone bets with his/her life on the existence or non-existence of God. The Wager is not optional. We all make it. We all must choose whether we believe in God or not. We base our lives on how we wager. There are four possibilities:
· If I wager that there is no God, and there is no God, I have really not won or lost anything substantial. My life, if it is selfish and oblivious to the needs of others, will result in no consequences as far as the afterlife is concerned, because there is probably not afterlife if there is no God.
· If I wager that there is no God, but there is a God, I have lost the relationship with God throughout my life, and there's always hell to pay. The loss is huge, as our life is truly meaningless, regardless of the afterlife.
· If I wager there is a God, but there is not a God, I have lost only the opportunities for selfishness and debauchery that I avoided. My life is rich and meaningful, filled with opportunities I've taken to help people who need my help.
· If I wager there is a God, and there is a God, I have won infinite treasure, not the least of which is a life filled with joy and wonder, as well as filled with serving God by serving others.
So, Pascal says the reasonable, rational, logical thing to do (as well as the spiritual, religious thing to do) is wager on the existence of God, and live accordingly.
Pascal was one of a number of brilliant minds who found meaning in a life consisting of studying Scripture, carving out time to pray, going to worship, and doing what they could to find and do the Will of God. His life is proof that being a good Christian doesn't mean you have to check your brain at the door. In our Walk with Holy Company, we have already seen this example in Paul and Augustine.
Science is not the enemy of faith. A critical study of Scripture, digging to find meaning that isn't obvious to those satisfied with surface reading, is not the enemy of faith.
The enemy of faith is selfishness. The enemy of faith is apathy. The enemy of faith is the overwhelming need to be distracted from things that are important, including our relationship with God, because we don't want to commit to the relationship with God, with Christ, with the Fire that Pascal found so overwhelming in 1654, when he committed himself to Christ. He didn't have to give up his genius to do that. God doesn't ask us to give up the gifts he's given us to help us serve others. He only asks that we focus those gifts to build up his kingdom in this world, to share God's love with everyone, to draw people into relationship with him, to be committed to God more than to anything else.