Image: Caravaggio at Hermanoleon
April 3, 2016
Our tradition has let the apostle Thomas
off easy.
"Doubting"
is really a kind of description of this aberrant apostle.
He was out of
place, out of step, out of it.
He not only
doubted—he denied.
The final fidelity
of reluctant Thomas is a good reminder to us that faith is often a matter of
doubts overcome.
If we never have
any doubts, our own ideas may coincide with God's, or we may not have any
personal ideas at all.
In either case, in
the absence of doubt, it is difficult to know whether we believe in god or in
our own cleverness.
But when there is
a difference of opinion between God and us, just when we think we may be losing
our faith, then is the opportunity to believe in something beyond us, to plead,
"Help my unbelief!"
Doubts are
absolutely mandatory to mature faith.
None of us can
have a deep faith without doubts.
Theologian Romano
Guardini wrote: FAITH IS THE CAPACITY TO BEAR YOUR DOUBTS, TO DEAL WITH YOUR
UNCERTAINTIES, TO BELIEVE FIRMLY ENOUGH TO LIVE WITH YOUR QUESTIONS.
WITHOUT SUCH
QUESTIONS, THERE IS NO FAITH.
Many people today
have no trouble with faith because faith does not bother them.
In the early
church, faith meant leaving family, job, perhaps even life itself.
But being a
Christian today is an acceptable thing,
so it may be
difficult to distinguish between faith and convenience.
I am merely noting
that, in the first century, people clearly knew they were marked for death,
whereas in the
20th century it requires special discernment to spot a Christian since most of
them do not seem to be marked for anything special.
Many who call
ourselves Christian are merely deists.
We do not believe
in Christ so much as in a remote God who creates and rewards and punishes and
keeps order.
That is, they have
a tough time believing in the God of the gospels, but bow most often to the God
of the Old Testament who controls and manipulates the forces of nature to God's
own end.
Until recently,
our reliance of God was based on our dependence on nature.
Our god might thunder
and terrify us, but we could appease this god by prayer and sacrifice and going
to church
We even talked
about God in terms of nature: power and majesty.
But, since we have
mastered nature, we have outgrown that god.
They say people
become atheists when they become better than their god.
So, having become
better than the god of nature, we are forced to either stop believing in god,
or return to the gospels and believe in a God of weakness, of humility, of
friendship, of tenderness.
Twenty centuries
ago, Jesus revealed the true religion for this century: a God who does not
manifest in power and glory
A God who is not
offended by human progress,
A God who serves
his servants
A God who dies so
that God's people might live.
Modern faith poses
us a critical choice.
We can hand
ourselves over to the new, powerful gods of technology
or we can throw
our lot with the unnatural God of the gospels.
That would, of
course, require a different kind of faith.
It would not be
the consoling faith of our fathers and mothers.
Faith can no
longer be a sentimental reaction to a cruel world.
God can no longer
be a buffer against outrageous fortune.
Prayer can no
longer be a consolation prize for coming in last.
Religion can no
longer shield us from facing up to a hard world and a crucified God.
Modern faith
leaves us with a battered earth to salvage, prisoners to free, starving
families to feed, wars to stop.
What we formerly
asked God to do for us, a grown-up God now tells us to do for ourselves.
It is not that God
no longer cares—God cars in a different way.
This happens every
time someone reaches maturity.
When we were
children, our parents fed us, clothed us, kept us from harm.
That was the way
they expressed their love.
And we responded
the only way children can: we called it "love" but it was more like
grateful dependency.
It was a
wonderful, symbiotic, mutually beneficial relationship.
But it was built
for obsolescence.
Parents are not
supposed to dominate forever; they are to form children for freedom.
Children are not
supposed to receive forever; they are to learn the joy of giving.
Our God is like
that.
We are not created
to be the pawns of a powerful tyrant or spoiled children of a pampering
parent.
We are images of
God.
Therefore, we
ought to reflect God's face.
Faith is doing
what we believe our God does: COMPASSIONATE, HELPING, FORGIVING, SUFFERING,
TRIUMPHANT.
Faith is believing
what Jesus told us his God was like,
.........instead
of what we think God ought to be like.
Not much difference,
then, between us and Thomas.
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