Wonder vs. Wander

I teach English to International Students. I had to teach one lesson explaining the difference between the pronunciation and meaning of the words wonder and wander. Those can be difficult words to pronounce but understanding what Wonder means was an even bigger challenge.

At mass recently, despite having some difficulty paying attention, the priest was talking about what marvels still astound us. Have we become indifferent and desensitized to almost everything? Or does beauty still surprise us? This led me to reflect further as to what leaves me with wonder.

People travel to wonder
at the height of the mountains,
at the huge waves of the seas,
at the long course of the rivers,
at the vast compass of the ocean,
at the circular motion of the stars,
and yet they pass by themselves
without wondering (Saint Augustine).

Living Awe

St. Augustine said such great words. We look here and there and anywhere we can to find beauty and wonder. We want our lives to be so great and important. We want so many things, but do we look at beauty? Are we full of wonder? Wonder is a big word. We are forced to think and look for understanding that wonder, beauty, and awe still exist. I think back often to that lesson teaching students about wonder vs. wander. I could say that wandering is aimless and without direction and purpose.

Sometimes, I see that we live our lives without a purpose, and we move from crisis to crisis and joy to joy without any taste for beauty. I look back and many events in my own life.

I remember once as a child, our parish priest used to visit our class every Thursday morning and teach religion to us. We asked him once how he could possibly hear confession and how he knew what to say and answer. His reply, after he finished hearing confession and giving absolution, he surprised himself thinking how he could answer the way he did. He admitted how much God helped him. There was no way he could answer the way he did. I never forgot hearing that because I understood how many times in my life that Christ helped me. He must have! Between university courses, decisions on where to live and work, and the ability to stay strong in struggles could only come from that grace.

The Lesson About Wonder

I asked my students that day in class about wonder. With their limited English, they could only struggle to answer how their deep feelings bubbled to the surface. It was a great discussion in class that day and I won the students over because they realized that they had to push themselves to improve vocabulary and articulate their ideas.

The school is secular, and I needed to be careful about imposing my Catholic views on them. However, we could always witness what we believe and leave people wondering and trying to understand beauty. What beauty? I don’t see my beauty at all; I see only the graces I’ve received from God.

You always misunderstand me; you don’t know, then, that I’m only a little seedling, a little almond (Saint Thérèse of Lisieux).

St. Thérèse was such a simple person and she spent so much of her time sick and weak. Yet she is patron of the missions and never traveled. Missions, beauty, wonder, and marvel – these all begin with love. They begin with an attachment to Christ. These are not ideas that would come from us and our ability. St. Isaac the Syrian said, “The highest form of prayer is to stand silently in awe before God.” It is a tall order to do so.

Some Examples

The liturgies of Easter are so powerful. Beginning with Palm Sunday and through to Easter Sunday, there is such beauty in the liturgy. The readings, tradition, and silence of the week are powerful. Easter joy continues for 40 days. Daily mass readings from the Acts of Apostles bring such wonder. How did this little group of disciples suddenly convert the Ancient World? Wonder. Awe. Call it what you will but it only comes from God. Who else could bring such beauty to the earth? The Servant of God, Luigi Giussani stated in his book, The Religious Sense,

Life is hunger, thirst, and passion for an ultimate object, which looms over the horizon, and yet always lies beyond it. When this is recognized, man becomes a tireless searcher.

Conclusion

Great quotes, great words, and many ideas offer us so much. But I would submit that we need to look at what is in our hearts. Healthy prayer life and open eyes to the reality around us can only give us the answers we are looking at. Thinking back to that homily at mass when the priest asked us if anything still is a marvel in our eyes was an important question. Does it? Do wonder and awe exist? We use the words awesome, great, fantastic so often, but do we know what they mean?

My language students, I hope know what these words mean. That lesson left me wondering about my own journey. I do not want to grow cynical and indifferent. I want that joy that Christ promised us. The question for me is how to maintain it and watch it grow.