|
Several years back—it was 2001 to be exact—the movie, A Beautiful
Mind, directed by Ron Howard (remember
“Opie,”
of the “The Andy Griffith Show”) and starring Russell Crowe, won four
Academy Awards, including the one for Best Picture. If you haven’t
seen or heard about the movie, A Beautiful Mind chronicles
the Nobel Laureate John F. Nash’s decades long struggle with
schizophrenia.
A mathematician, Nash was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for
his pioneering analysis of equilibria in the theory of
non-competitive games. Game theory emanates from studies of games
such as chess or poker. Everyone knows that in these games, players
have to think ahead by devising a strategy based upon
expected countermoves from the other player(s). Such strategic
interaction also characterizes many economic situations, and game
theory therefore has proven to be very useful in economic analysis.
John F. Nash introduced the distinction between cooperative games,
in which binding agreements can be made, and non-cooperative games,
where binding agreements are not feasible. Nash developed an
equilibrium concept for non-cooperative games that later came to be
called the “Nash equilibrium.”
Nash’s was the mind of a genius—A Beautiful Mind—who viewed
the world in a way that no one who did not know of his mental
disease could have imagined.
Trained in scientific rationality, Nash found himself in his early
30s slipping into the delusional thinking characteristic of persons
who are psychiatrically diagnosed as “schizophrenic” or “paranoid
schizophrenic.” As a consequence, Nash resigned his position as a
faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and,
after spending 50 days under “observation” at the McLean Hospital,
travelled to Europe where he attempted to gain status as a
political refugee. The ruse didn’t
work and
following his return to the United States, Nash
was hospitalized in New Jersey a number of times for five to eight
months, always on an involuntary basis, and always attempting a legal
argument to earn him release.
It did happen that when Nash had been hospitalized long enough, he
finally renounced his delusional hypotheses and reverted to thinking
of himself as a human of more conventional circumstances and
returned to mathematical research. However, these were but
interludes of enforced rationality, because in his mid
40’s Nash returned to his dream-like delusional hypotheses and again
became a person of delusionally influenced thinking but of
relatively moderate behavior. That is how Nash tended to avoid
hospitalization and the direct attention of psychiatrists.
Time passed. Nash gradually began to reject some of the delusionally influenced lines of thinking which had been
characteristic of his disease. This began, most recognizably, with
his rejection of politically-oriented thinking as essentially a
hopeless waste of intellectual effort. Think not of his ruse
in Europe to be granted the status of a political refugee or of his
lawyerly pretentions to earn release from confinement in New Jersey
asylums. No, in this presidential
election year, stop and consider Nash’s
insight! To think as
politicians think is a delusionary and hopeless waste of
intellectual effort!
Ironically, while once again able to think rationally again in the style characteristic of
scientists, Nash didn’t experience his return to mental health as a
matter of happiness or joy, as if someone had returned from physical disability
to good physical health. One aspect of Nash’s disappointment was
that rationality of thought imposes limits upon a person’s concept
of his relation to the cosmos. Nash’s found that his mental disease
released him from such limitations. It was, so to speak, more
beautiful to think delusionally than rationally and more pleasurable
to live in a fantasy than in reality.
We don’t oftentimes think about it, but that’s exactly what sin does
to our minds. As we allow the power of evil to tempt us to think as
delusionary people think (the word “Satan” means “Tempter”), the
limitations that moral rationality impose upon us are weakened. What
used to restrain us now appears to be nothing more than utter
foolishness as we enter into a heretofore unknown world where there
are no moral limits and where a return to the world of moral limits is believed
to be utter foolishness. We yearn to be free from any moral
prescription that might restrain our desires...to do what we want,
when we want, and how we want.
The mantra of those who have succumbed to Satan’s temptations? “The Lord’s way is not fair!”
Today’s gospel provides an example of this type of delusional
thinking and the world of fantasy Satan invites us to enter.
We all know the fourth commandment teaches, “Honor your father and mother.”
This isn’t a difficult concept to understand and we know that it
places moral limits upon us in relationship to our parents. Even so, many
young people find themselves tempted to violate the fourth
commandment for a host of reasons, none of which is reasonable.
And, then, young people begin thinking delusionally rather than
rationally, for example, arrogantly stating “I will not!” when a
parent asks them to perform some chore or by saying “Okay, I’ll do
it” and not performing the chore. This is the stuff of pure
fantasy, for no child possesses the freedom or the right to dishonor
one’s parents. But, it sure is fun to live in the world of delusion
believing that dishonoring one’s parents is a good thing!
Then there’s also the sixth commandment which we all know teaches, “You shall not
commit adultery.” Again, not a difficult concept to understand and
all of us know quite well the moral limits it places upon spouses in their
relations with members of the opposite sex. Even so, many married
people find themselves tempted to violate the sixth commandment for
a host of reasons, none of which is reasonable. And, it isn’t
long before
a married person begins thinking delusionally rather than
rationally, for example, convincing oneself that one’s spouse is the
source of one’s marital difficulties or that there’s
absolutely nothing wrong with infidelity. Obviously, this is the
stuff of pure fantasy, for no spouse possesses the freedom or the
right to engage in infidelity. What else can “I promise to love
you, honor you, and obey you all of the days of my life” possibly
mean? But, how many spouses today think it great fun to live in the
world of delusion believing that infidelity is a good thing?
We all know the eighth commandment teaches, “You shall not bear false witness
against your neighbor.” Another simple concept to understand and,
again, all of us know quite well that it places moral limits upon what we
are free to say about other people. Even so, many of us find
ourselves tempted to violate the eighth commandment for a garden’s
variety of reasons, none of which is reasonable. And, then, as we
begin to think delusionally rather than rationally, we convince
ourselves that we have every right to gossip about or malign another
person. Obviously, this is the stuff of pure fantasy, for none of
us possesses the freedom or the right to engage in bearing false
witness. But, how many of us enjoy living in the world of delusion
believing that bearing false witness is a good thing?
Being rational, we know that delusionary people believe their world
of fantasy is the world of reality. For example, an alcoholic or
drug addict truly believes that he or she cannot live through the
day without a “fix.” We all know this is delusional and
evidence of the addict’s mental disease. Being rational, we
also know that dishonoring parents, committing adultery, or bearing
false witness is delusional and provide evidence of the sinner’s mental disease.
St. Paul reminds us that the only way sinners—and that’s all of
us—can leave the world of fantasy behind and re-enter the world of
reality is to put on the mind of Christ and to share his attitude.
“Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory,” St. Paul wrote
to the Philippians, “rather, humbly regard others as more important
than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but
also for those of others” (2:4-5).
God’s ways are not “unfair.” Loving God and neighbor as we love
ourselves is not a recipe for unhappiness. That’s all the stuff of
delusion. God’s ways are eminently fair and true happiness is
experienced not in selfish but in selfless behavior. When we not only believe this but
also live what scripture teaches, we possess not “A Beautiful
Mind” of a Nobel Laureate but “The Truly Beautiful
Mind”
of Christ.
|
HOMILY
