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Cardinal Basil Hume OSB |
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Faith |
| If you really get to think deeply about the things of God,
then you come very soon to a level beyond which the human mind cannot go.
You can go so far paddling in the sea, and there comes a point where it has to carry you. So it is that reason can only go so far, and then comes the point where faith has to carry you. So you get very quickly to mystery and mystery is denied, by me anyway, as a secret reality about God which lies beyond our capacity either to discover or to understand. Faith and doubt Doubt is the instrument to purify my faith. It is only when I begin to doubt that I really make an honest act of faith: "Lord I do believe, help Thou my unbelief." Time and again it is against all the odds, against everything my brain is telling me. But faith must be purified time and again, because it is the purification of faith that leads to growth in love. That perfect act of faith, which is always made in pain and sometimes in agony, leads in a most remarkable way to peace and serenity. Why? Because faith is a gift of God. "Who do men say that I am?" When Our Lord put this question to St Peter, he answered with the faith of the whole early Church and every generation since: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Reflect on the place Jesus Christ has in your life and whether it affects your faith and helps you to believe and say as did St Thomas: "My Lord and my God." We need in our day to affirm our faith in Jesus Christ, true God and true man, and there is another faith which follows from that: our faith in the presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament - Christ wholly present, body, soul and divinity. Prayer to Our Lady can deepen our faith in Jesus Christ her Son and His presence in the Eucharist. Ask for that grace, because when we are touched in our faith in Christ and [us presence in the Eucharist, that has an effect on the whole life of the Church, far beyond our own personal faith. Sometimes I am uncertain, hesitant, when in a very Godless world I am tempted to doubt. When I remember the words: " Would you, too go away? " There is, I think, a note of anxiety in His voice, just in case we might. Of course we do not, "Lord, to whom should we go? Thy words are the words of eternal life; we have learned to believe and are assured that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God." (Jn 6:69) That is often an act of faith made by you and by me when reason is of no avail, and there is only darkness around with no one to guide and help. It is the finest of prayers, for it is the desire to love the unseen which prompts it, not the evidence of our senses. It is one to which He listens readily and rejoices when it is said. The eyes of faith One of my favourite places in Lourdes is the zig-zag path down to the Grotto. What you see on the first corner is a statue of Bartimaeus, the blind man. Why is it there? Looking over the Grotto, he sees nothing because he is blind. That statue was placed there by an Italian who, though not cured of her blindness, rediscovered her faith which she realised was more to be prized than physical sight. "What wouldst thou have me do for thee?" The point about that story is not that the blind man got back his physical sight, which indeed he did; the important point is that he followed Jesus. What is important for us in following Jesus is that we should get back the inward eye, the inner light. So we pray not for a physical miracle, but a spiritual change. The inner life: that part of us where faith and doubt contest the mastery and where alas, doubt prevails because it is the stronger of the two though not the wiser Without faith, life is emptied of its true meaning and purpose. A long time ago I had a friend who had been born blind. He had one great enthusiasm in his life and that was watching cricket. He had no idea what cricket looked like. Yet he had this tremendous interest, almost a passion for it. I used to take him to matches, sit beside him, giving a running commentary. He would be riveted, and get very excited. The point is this: he was totally dependent on what I was saying to him. I could have been telling him a pack of lies. We might not even have been watching a cricket match at all. But no, as I described the game he got more and more interested and involved. It was that experience that taught me about faith. Because I do not see God with my eyes, I do not see Him present in the Blessed Sacrament. I did not see Him rise from the dead. I have not seen any of these things with my eyes. I cannot touch God with my hands, nor hear His voice with my ears. So in a way we are all blind, like that man at the cricket match. You and I depend entirely on what God tells us. That is why the Word of God is so important. Faith is listening to what God has to say through the Scriptures.
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