Mind on Fire
John Fischer

I have been reacquainting myself lately with the writings of Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) and reminded again of the amazing life of this mathematician, physicist, philosopher and religious thinker. In thirty-nine short years (nine, while suffering with an illness that finally claimed his earthly existence) he created mathematical theorems that are still in use today, discovered and researched the properties of a vacuum, dialogued with the greatest scientists of Europe, and wrote volumes of discourse on the meaning of life and the existence of God that is still considered to contain, in its mastery of reason and rhetoric, the finest French prose in history. I doubt there is a literary or law degree in the western world that does not include, as its foundational study, the writings and argumentative skills of Pascal.

And here is what you find out in all that body of work: that his mind was on fire with the light of Christ. With all of his genius intellect, it was a direct encounter with the risen Christ that filled up the emptiness in his own soul. Pascal’s most amazing discovery was that you cannot know God through intellect alone. You know Him through the heart and that comes through experiencing Him directly in a spiritual way. "The heart has its reasons, that reason knows not of."

On the night of November 23, 1654, while reading the seventeenth chapter of the Gospel of John, Pascal had an encounter with God that instantly filled the emptiness in his heart. It was a life-changing experience he would memorialize on a parchment that he had sewn into the lining of his coat until his death, eight years later. On that parchment, he wrote:

From about half past ten at night to about half an hour after midnight,
FIRE
"God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob," not of philosophers and scholars
Certitude, heartfelt joy, peace.
God of Jesus Christ.
God of Jesus Christ.
The world forgotten, everything except God.
"O righteous Father, the world has not known You, but I have known You"
(John 17:25).
Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy.

In a moment of his greatest illumination, Pascal wrote what a child could have written. From that moment, he went on to write: "Reason Can Begin Again by Recognizing What It Can Never Know," and "The Transition from Human Knowledge to Knowing God." Both of these titles indicate that it is not sufficient to know about God or even argue His existence (which Pascal could do better than anybody); it was ultimately necessary to meet God and come to know Him personally.

350 years ago, one of the greatest minds in human history trembled in the presence of God and cried tears of joy over his salvation, and now, scholars, scientists and lawyers have to read about it, because he wrote it so well. I don’t know about you, but that kind of stuff sets my mind on fire!

PDL