An Easter Morning Crossword Puzzle

He is Risen! On Sunday we celebrated the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. On the third day after his crucifixion and death on the cross, he rose and walked out of the tomb as he had said he would. In this paschal mystery, God did not shame or belittle the world, but rather affirmed the inherent goodness of Creation. When he created the world God called it good, and he “so loved the world that he gave his only Son” to restore its goodness (Jn 3:16). We live in the Resurrection when we recognize the goodness of the world, and a recent interest in crossword puzzles here at the seminary aids such a recognition.

Because the created world—reality— is good, we benefit from accepting reality “as is” and responding accordingly. When a basketball player is on the court, he must conform himself to the rules and objectives of the sport—rules and objectives that were not his original idea (unless he is James Naismith, the man who invented basketball). Anyone who has played sports or boardgames like chess knows that there is more freedom and fun when the sport is played as it is meant to be played.

In his 2009 book Shop Class as Soulcraft, philosopher-turned-motorcycle-mechanic Matthew Crawford proposes manual repair work (like the work of an auto-mechanic, plumber, electrician, etc.) as a facilitator in man’s proper relationship with reality. When presented with a bike that you did not manufacture and that has a problem you did not cause, you cannot assert your will, kick the wheel, and expect to ride into the sunset. Rather, a mechanic must allow the bike with its problem to appear to him as it is, and in doing so have a “vivid awareness of the difference between self and nonself.” One of Crawford’s conclusions is that in doing physical repair work, one begins a moral education in which he learns that, like a broken motorcycle, life with its rules and obligations are not his own invention and must be dealt with as such.

Some of us here at the seminary have been on a crossword puzzle kick. We’ll start the crossword from the Wall Street Journal at breakfast and leave it out on the common room table for anyone to fill out an answer or two throughout the day. It’s a fun way to spend time together each day—and we’ve gotten pretty good.

Part of the attraction of a crossword puzzle reflects Crawford’s conclusion. We may not be adjusting valves in a Honda SuperHawk motorcycle, but in a crossword we must conform to the rules and clues of the puzzle as they are written. Nobody is checking our work; we could fill in each box with random letters and say we completed the puzzle. But of course that would be ridiculous. A successful completion of the puzzle requires one to conform to the clues given by the puzzle-maker. Crawford would say that such a puzzle requires attention, not assertion. Crosswords, motorcycle repair, and basketball are examples of activities that form an outlook on life in which we respond properly to reality “as is.” Such activity helps us recognize that the world too has a structure, with rules and objectives not of our own design. Like a crossword puzzle, life requires less assertion and more attention.

Mr. Fairbanks is a Second Pre-Theology seminarian for the Archdiocese of Washington.