Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Last week we pondered the object of faith and discovered that Jesus Christ was at the heart and center. We learned that Christianity is not so much a code of ethics or a collection of beliefs, but a trust fall of our entire lives into the arms of the Person of Jesus. This week, let us continue our reflection on faith and spend some time discerning the context of faith.
As we all know, faith is a profoundly personal reality. This is emphasized in the profession of faith made during the Easter season and at baptisms. As many of you have experienced, at special times and during special celebrations, the Church uses a profession of faith formula that involves three personal responses." It divides the creed into three parts and asks the people present to respond with "I do" to each of them.
The reason for this formula is to demonstrate concretely the personal nature of the faith commitment. The three-fold "I do" proclamation of the faith is an opportunity for me to state how faith in Jesus Christ has caused a personal conversion in my life and has reformed and redirected my entire person. It is a way of publically announcing that I am different because of my experience of Christ.
However, although faith is a personal commitment made by the individual believer, it is also a communal reality that cannot be separated from the entire body of believers: the Church. One of the beautiful truths of the Christian faith is that no one believes by oneself. Faith is a way of knowing through witness. We are able to follow Christ, only because someone has given us an opportunity to encounter Christ. Without this witness, there would be no faith. Pope Benedict XVI once said, "Our faith is truly personal only if it is also communal: it can be my faith only if it dwells in and moves with the 'we' of the Church, only if it is our faith, the common faith of the one Church."
READ MOREDear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Last week I wrote and preached about the dynamic of faith and doubt and how this dynamic is a part of the inescapable dilemma of being human. Since "faith" is such a strong Easter theme, I would like to spend the next few weeks reflecting on this beautiful topic in order to help us unpack the beauty and mystery of the Christian faith. In particular, our reflection will explore three aspects: the object of faith, the context of faith, and the result of faith.
Have you ever been asked the question, "Why are you a Christian?" What would your answer be to this question? Many people respond with the answer, "In order to be a good person." Was this your answer? The great Christian author C.S. Lewis once argued that the only correct answer to this question is, "Because I believe it is true."
Man is a seeker of truth. To ignore the truth of something is to ignore an important aspect of our human nature. To reduce the Christian faith to the object of merely "doing good," would be to reduce our humanity to something lower than its true self. Christianity does not merely present a "way of life," but a series of "facts" about what the real universe is all about. In other words, the purpose of Christianity is more than simply, "being a good person." If Christianity isn't true, then no honest man should believe it, no matter how much benefit it might be to him.
In addition, the object of the Christian faith cannot be reduced to the sum of its teachings. The Christian faith is so much more than a mere collection of ideas or intellectual property. There is more to man than just his intellectual pursuits.
Rather, the object of the Christian faith is not a code of ethics or a collection of knowledge, but a person. Pope Benedict XVI once wrote, "Faith is not a mere intellectual assent of the human person to specific truths about God; it is an act with which I entrust myself freely to a God who is Father and who loves me…Christianity, before being a moral good or an ethic, is the event of love, it is the acceptance of the Person of Jesus."
The primary reason why we should be Christians is so that we can have a relationship with the Person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the one who created the world, redeemed it and recreated it anew. In the Person of Jesus Christ we discover where we came from and why we were created. In Him we are given the grace needed to live the fullness of our human life so as to share in God's eternal divine life. The reason why we should believe the teachings of the Christian faith and live the moral code of Christian faith is because they come from the Person of Jesus Christ.
People follow persons, not ideas. People sacrifice their lives for their loved ones, not their favorite concepts. A soldier dies not for his country, but for the people he knows and loves who make up his country. The early martyrs of the faith did not die for a teaching or an ethical code, they died for Jesus Christ. They found Him to be the pearl of great price, the one worth living and dying for.
Brothers and sisters, we miss the point of the faith completely when we make it about something other than Jesus Christ. He should be the most important person in our lives. Without Him, we have nothing. He must be the object of our faith. Let us pray during this Easter season that all Catholics, including ourselves, develop a deeper love for Jesus so that we might be willing to risk our lives and place our bets on Him.
Peace in Christ, Fr. Will
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
The 20th century Jewish philosopher, Martin Buber, once told a story about a rabbi and an atheist scholar who would argue regularly about the authenticity of the Torah. One day, the rabbi hit the atheist scholar with a statement that made him tremble. The rabbi in reference to the Torah said, "Perhaps it is true after all." This simple statement made the atheist scholar tremble because it caused him to reflect upon his own doubt in the belief that God does not exist. The atheist had to confront the possibility that he might be wrong and the rabbi might be right.
As a Catholic priest, I regularly receive emails and phone calls from Catholics who say something along the lines of, "Father, I am really having doubts about my Catholic faith. If God is really there, wouldn't he take my doubt away?" In our culture, doubt is automatically assumed to be something bad, unnecessary, hypocritical, and in need of immediate correction.
Pope Benedict XVI, in his book, Introduction to Christianity, reminds us that the dynamic between faith and doubt is a part of the dilemma of being a man. He states, "Just as the believer is choked by the salt water of doubt constantly washed into his mouth by the ocean of uncertainty, so the non-believer is troubled by doubts about his unbelief…Just as the believer knows himself to be constantly threatened by unbelief, which he must experience as a continual temptation, so for the unbeliever faith remains a temptation and a threat to his apparently permanently closed world…Anyone who makes up his mind to evade the uncertainty of belief will have to experience the uncertainty of unbelief."
The human person cannot evade the dilemma of belief and doubt. All persons have faith in something, and all struggle with doubt in the midst of their faith. J.R. Tolkien once wrote, "A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it."
Even St. Thomas the Apostle, one of Jesus' closest and strongest followers, struggled with doubt. Today's Gospel (John 20:19-31) is the passage from Scripture that resulted in his infamous nickname: "Doubting Thomas." It is unfortunate that he has been labeled as a doubter. St. Thomas the Apostle was a man of great faith. He was simply more public about his doubt than others. Notice that although he had doubt about the Resurrection of Christ, he was still gathered with the Apostles in prayer. This is a sign of faithfulness. He should be called, "Faithful Thomas," not "Doubting Thomas."
In today's culture, we are tempted to abandon our faith at the moment we are confronted with doubt. This is a mistake. Doubt is a part of the human experience and can be transformed by Christ into great faith. St. Thomas the Apostle is a perfect example of this. Too often we let doubt sink into our minds and hearts and refuse to do anything about it.
Do you have doubts about the Resurrection of Christ? Search for opportunities to have an encounter with Him. Do you struggle to believe that quiet time in front of the Blessed Sacrament will change your life? Sacrifice an hour each week for the next six months and see what happens. Do you struggle to believe the Church's teaching about a particular topic? Do some research and find out exactly why the Church teaches what she does, instead of letting someone outside the Church tell you what she teaches and why she teaches it. The Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said, "There are not a hundred people in America who hate the Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church – which is, of course, quite a different thing."
Too often we allow ourselves to become lazy when it comes to our faith. We think that God is supposed to make it easy for us. The cost we pay for something is what gives something its value. If it cost us little to acquire, we usually treat it with little value and respect. If it cost us a lot to acquire, we usually treasure it as if it were priceless.
Maybe, just maybe, this is why doubt is a part of the dilemma of being human. As humans, we have the capacity for greatness, but only if we overcome obstacles. In the play Measure for Measure, William Shakespeare wrote, "Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt." The man who overcomes doubt and is successful in belief is considered a hero. Maybe God wants more Catholic heroes. Maybe we should confront our doubt instead of hiding or running from it. Maybe our doubt is what will open us up to being better believers. Maybe instead of asking God to take our doubt away, we should ask God to give us the courage and tenacity to wrestle with it.
Peace in Christ,
Fr. Will
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Have you ever wondered why God asks us to rely upon the testimony of others for the Resurrection of Christ? If God really did rise from the dead, then why didn't he just tear open the sky and undeniably and unquestionably show Himself as the Lord of lords and King of kings? I believe there are three good answers to this question.
First, God desires our participation in the mission of proclaiming the Gospel message to the world. What would be the point of training someone to have the skills to perform a particular activity and then not have them perform that activity? We have a God who loves us so much that He wants us to be a part of His incredible mission. He doesn't want us sitting on the sidelines of the faith. He wants us in the game (so to speak). He wants us to be the messengers of the good news of His victory over death.
Second, God desires to teach us the importance of little things. We spend our lives focusing on the big stuff: the big paycheck, the big house, the big job, the big vacation, etc… Sometimes we focus so much on the big things, we miss the little things. Remember the parable of the mustard seed and how it grows into a very large tree. It is far more impressive for God to transform the world using the testimony of a handful of simple Jewish fishermen than through some gigantic overpowering cosmic demonstration. God doesn't need earthquakes, worldwide floods, and pillars of fire to get our attention anymore. All He needs is the openness of a humble heart.
Third, God wants to remind us that He is God and we are not. Faith is a free gift that we humbly receive. It is not a magic trick that we can control or manipulate. God is free to reveal Himself to us in the manner that He chooses. We are not in control of His revelation. We are merely receivers and stewards of it. We cannot demand to take possession of God's gift and do with it whatever we want. The insistence to take control of the way God chooses to reveal Himself to us is to reverse the proper relationship between God and man: to make ourselves God and to make God our servant.
What keeps you from seeing the Resurrected Christ in your life? If we really want the Resurrection to mean something in our lives, we have to learn to open our hearts to God and allow Him to work in us in the manner that he chooses, in his own unique and beautiful way. May we be open to the Resurrected Christ this Easter season so that we can come to experience the living God!
Peace in Christ,
Fr. Will