Cat In the Box

Passages: Acts 20:17-38; 1 John 3:2-6; John 9:39-10:10
Ընթերցուածքներ՝ Գործ. Ի 17-38; Ա Յով. Գ 2-6; Յով. Թ39 – Ժ10

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen!

In the world of quantum mechanics there is an experiment created by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger known as, Schrodinger’s Cat, a.k.a The Cat in the Box. Without going into the technical scientific jargon, Schrodinger’s Cat is a theory that says, that if you place a cat into a box with something that can eventually kill it, you won’t know if the cat is alive or dead until you open the box. So, until you open the box and observe the cat, the cat is simultaneously dead and alive. The truth in the box is unknown; what we know for certain is that there is a cat, there is the reality of danger, and the outcome is either traffic or joyful. While this experiment is designed to ask questions about quantum mechanics, there is a truth that can be applied to our faith.

As Christian’s we learn from a young age about Jesus. We learn about God loving us, forgiving us, helping us. We sing songs and teach our children songs with joyful words, “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so” or in Armenian Soorp Astvadz, Soorp yev Hzor… (Holy God, Holy Immortal…) But in life we experience suffering, we experience failure and hurt. In the same way we know of the cat and the danger present in Schrodinger’s experiment, likewise, we know of Jesus and the presence of sin in our life. Yet, my dears, only by opening the box will we know the truth of what is inside, likewise, only by “opening” the gate to God will we know the truth that is inside. In the Gospel of John we read, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.” (Jn. 10:7-9) I am the gate, I am the door, my dears, means it is by coming to Christ Jesus alone, that we can learn the truth, the fullness of God. It is only through Christ we begin to understand how we can live our life with hope, joy and love while in times of danger, suffering, pain and hurt. It is only through Christ that we can know God.

Our faith is not a theory, it is not a “feel good” or motivational mindset written in songs; our faith is a relationship, a deep Communion with our Heavenly Father and that relationship brings to us a real knowledge. A real knowledge, which we call an illumination through the Holy Spirit of who God is and what that means for each one of us. So many people these days argue “which religion is the true religion”, “which God is the real God.” Or if God is not someone we are interested in, we ask, who am I? What is my purpose? And while grappling with both, we ask, how is it possible that I struggle, suffer or why do others suffer in this world if a loving God exists? In the Psalms (86) we read, “Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord; Neither are there any works like your works.” What the Psalmist is referring to is not that there are many gods out there but that no one and nothing that we have created, thought of, or designed in our life and made into “gods” compares to the One and True God. Also, how God works, how God is active in our life, what thy Will is, is not limited to our understanding; We don’t decide who God is, what is acceptable in His sight, what He could, should or would do. We make statements like God is love, God is Hope, God is good, etc. Yet, sadly, too many of us live the other way around; today’s society puts love as god, hope as god, health, wealth, our own ambitions as god… We choose to decide who or what God is when we struggle to define we who are as humans. We make gods (small G) for us and when we fail, when hurt, pain and suffering surrounds us and we find no answer, no guidance, and no hope, we blame God (big G).

Yet, my dears, the only thing we can do, what we are invited to do, is open the box, “open and enter the gate” through reverence, love, repentance, and prayer, and God will illuminate and reveal to us who He is and what His will is and who we are in that will. St. John in his letter says, “What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure… (1 John 3:2-3) My dears, yes we know evil, sin, suffering, hurt exists in this life; we know that in the “box” we call life, there is danger. Yet, when we open the proverbial box, when we enter into Christ and live this life in faith, we will also know God, we will know how to live as God created each one of us to be – as His beloved child. We will understand that through Christ on the Cross, the danger in this life is temporary and will pass. And so, my dears, how do we enter the gate? 

By opening our Holy Scriptures, by participating in the Sacraments of the Holy Church actively, learning, seeking, knocking on the gatedoor, and asking God to let us in. To open the box is to be revealed to the truth; God came to reveal to us His truth which had been blinded to our eyes because of sin. Until we open the box, what is inside will remain hidden; we will not fully know God or ourselves. What we will know is merely what we “create” in our heads. Therefore my dears, come to Christ, pray for wisdom and peace, love and hope not based on our limited understanding but through the Holy Spirit let us pray for an illuminating understanding, where God our Heavenly Father is revealed to us and reveals to us who He has created us in this life for be despite of the evil that is around us – We are His beloved children. Open and seek, come and ask, pray and listen and we will in this life come to know God, come to know ourselves, come to know the truth of life. Glory to my God, glory to my God, for all things, glory to our Lord, Amen!