Page 5 - The Portal Magazine - December 2024

THE P RTAL December 2024 Page 5
Snapdragon
Snapdragon
Questions, questions,

questions!

UESTIONS, QUESTIONS, questions! We all ask such a lot of questions, don’t
Qwe? There you are, I’ve just done it already! But it really is true isn’t it? Be honest, you
can’t deny it can you? What is it that makes us ask questions all the time? I had better stop
right now otherwise I might fill the whole page with questions and who would want that? I
really need to stop NOW.

Maybe that is why quizzes are so boredom. Not at all, they are asking questions so
popular. We love asking questions that they can make sense of a world that without
and hopefully finding answers. TV their questions and the answers they receive would
quiz programmes have always had a be totally bewildering.
massive following. It is no new thing.
All our knowledge comes from asking questions
Those of us of a certain age surely remember and seeking answers, from the child who wants to
“Take your Pick” with Michael Miles and “Double know where ice comes from to the scientist asking
your Money” with Hughie Green. In recent times questions about string theory. It is all about trying
we have had “Who wants to be a Millionaire?” “The to understand.
Chase” and “Tipping Point” and let us not forget
“Mastermind”. But our “intellectual Eros” does not stop at
questions about the material world. All human
Has anyone ever defined man as “a questioning beings have deeper questions about the world and
animal”? (Yet another question!) If not they should ourselves. Think of the opening of the old “Penny
have. The Jesuit philosopher Bernard Lonergan, in Catechism”. (It now retails for £3.95 from CTS.)
his magnus opus “Insight” (I think it was there) said
something like “man is possessed of an intellectual “WHO made you? Answer: God made me.
Eros”. However, as Snapdragon readers know, as an WHY did God make you? To know him, love
avid reader of “Biggles” I could be wrong! him and serve him in this world and to be
happy with him for ever in the next.” It is these
Well what I think ol’ Bernie meant when he penned deeper questions that the world asks, to which
this little bon mot was something like this. Human the church must give her answer. And when I
beings want to know stuff; it is a very basic urge and say the church, I do not mean just the parish
it is very much part of being human. It is a desire priest, or the bishop or even the pope! I mean
akin to the urge for sex (or any other basic instinct everyone one of us who claim to be lovers of
like sleeping, eating and drinking.) Our Lord Jesus Christ. In a world desperate
for meaning and guidance, let us always give a
Now you might find yourself saying something gentle and godly answer to those who ask for
like “...and your point is?” It seems such a truism; “an account of the hope that is within us”.
of course we want to know things, everyone knows
THAT. Every parent will know it only too well!

Youngsters have an endless stream of questions to You are invited to join the
which they demand an answer. By the end of the day, Rosary Fellowship
the average parent is exhausted with the nonstop
interrogation by their offspring! For full details and an application form
please contact Barry Barnes at:
But Lonergan is right. Our desire to know is rosaryfellowship@yahoo.com
insatiable. We have an urge to find answers. The
child is constantly asking questions not simply to 01328 853015
quiz the parent like some kind of trivial pursuit, or Please could clergy bring this initiative to the attention of any of
simply out of a mischievous sense of fun, or from your people who do not have access to this publication