Super Mario World and the Wings of Faith

Born in 1990, I grew up in the golden era of video game consoles. Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Playstation, and Nintendo 64 received much attention in my house. The game, Super Mario World, was always one of my favorites. The different levels of the game were so intriguing.

If you’ve never played, the premise is simple. Mario embarks on a mission to rescue Princess Peach from the evil boss named Bowser. Along the way, the player controlling Mario faces all sorts of obstacles and challenges.

It’s a difficult game. The game map is exciting. The music is great. The frustrations are real. It has everything that made 1990s video games so great. 

One aspect of an early level (or “course”) provides an avenue to understand the relationship between faith and reason in Catholic thought.

I’m talking about the first time Mario jumps into a floating feather and receives a “flight power-up” (we called it “flying power” in my house). A memorable sound effect accompanies the exciting moment. 

Let’s turn more specifically to faith and reason. We’ll return to Mario later to make the connection. St. John Paul II opens his 1998 Encyclical Fides et Ratio (which translates to “Faith and Reason”) in the following way: 

Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves. (Fides et Ratio)

A beautiful line indeed. But what is reason? And what is faith? Put simply, reason refers to our rational faculties of understanding, judging, and arriving at conclusions. For example, when we reason to a mathematical result (e.g. proving the the Pythagorean theorem), we see clearly (with intellectual “sight”) that the conclusion must be true. 

And what is faith? In simple terms, faith is belief based on the testimony of others. Perhaps you have never proven the Pythagorean theorem yourself. Perhaps you were too bored to try to understand it when your Geometry teacher showed you.

Nonetheless, you may have had human faith in your teacher that the Pythagorean theorem was indeed true. This human faith we have in ordinary life can be maintained tentatively, and sometimes we will lose faith in people and come to doubt their credibility.

When it comes to what theologians call supernatural faith, we’re referring to the infused virtue by which we believe God and all that He has revealed.

For Catholics, this revelation can be found in Scripture and Tradition as they are interpreted and explicated by the Magisterium. God’s revelation is a supremely credible source, because God, who is Truth Itself, cannot lie or contradict His own nature (cf. John 14:6, Timothy 2:13). 

Hence, the assent of supernatural faith in God is firm and tenacious, as opposed to the sometimes fleeting nature of merely human faith. Also, this supernatural faith is not a blind leap, because we can know the location and authenticity of revelation since God gives motives of credibility such as (a) miracles, (b) fulfilled prophecies, (c) the endurance of the Church, and (d) the holiness of Her saints (cf. CCC 156). 

So, Catholics have two ways of coming to true conclusions about important questions. First, they might grasp the truth using their own natural reason. Second, they might grasp the truth by having faith in a trustworthy source (e.g. God’s revelation).

We know some propositions through both faith and reason. For example, good philosophy and metaphysics can prove God’s existence, yet one can also trust in the God as revealed through Moses, the prophets, and ultimately in Jesus Christ.

Sometimes, reasoning to true conclusions about theological matters can be difficult or downright impossible. Hence, to channel St. John Paul II’s opening line, “it’s more likely people will need the “wing of faith” in addition to the “wing of reason” to arrive at the knowledge that God is a Trinity, Jesus is God incarnate, and more.

Ok, we’re now ready to make the connection to Super Mario World…

In the first few levels (or “courses”) of the game, Mario can run and jump and take care of his enemies in the normal way to reach the finish line. Yet, in one level, a feather floats down after a bad guy is stomped, and Mario obtains a “flight power up.”

He still retains the power to run and jump in the normal way, but he now sports a cape and the ability to fly high into the sky, well above where any regular jump could bring him. 

While it’s possible to complete some levels apart from “flying power,” there were courses that were much more easily conquered with skills that came with the cape. Additionally, the “flying power” allows Mario to see regions of courses that would otherwise be inaccessible to him.  

Do you see the where I’m going with this? 

Mario’s initial abilities of running and jumping (apart from “flying power”) are like our rational abilities to figure things out on our own, apart from God’s revelation. Yes, we may get some things right and can arrive at true conclusions (even God’s existence!), but it might take us a while, and we might confuse them (in Mario terms, we might run out of “lives” trying to do so). 

Yet, God offers us the gift of supernatural faith that, like “flying power,” takes us to unseen heights and allows us to arrive at more true conclusions by his grace.

What’s more, God has given us special access to His inner life. Just like Mario flies to new heights and finds previously hidden tunnels and portals, God calls us to share in His own Trinitarian life – revealing what was previously unknown: that the one creator God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

Let us thank the creators of Super Mario for the marvelous game and the gift of “flying power.” And let us thank the Almighty Creator for the gift of supernatural faith, the access to his inner mystery that we have by faith, and the hope of spending eternal life with Him.