Sections:

1)Some Ideas on the Existence of God

2)Why be a catholic?

3)Crisis of Faith & the instiutional church

4)Atheism: "Help My Unbelief"

5)Atheism, faith and love

6)"Faith Through Crucible of Doubt" (Two Prophets: Dostoevsky and St. Thérèse of Lisieux)

7) In search of God - and of Christ

 

 

In Search of God - and of Christ

St. Augustine, author of the famous CONFESSIONS, once a very pagan and immoral atheist, later a convert Catholic, bishop and most eminent theologian, could write:

"If you were not incomprehensible, O Lord, you would not be God, for how can the FINITE understand the INFINITE?"

In a challenging and highly acclaimed new book, "In Search of Belief" a distinguished Benedictine American nun, Joan Chittister, writes:

"I can believe in God or not believe in God, yes. But there is a price for the choice."

"Not to believe in God is to believe only in myself and what I see around me. Without a God, I am God. I make myself the god of my own world. I worship gods of my own making - money, power, prestige, approval, things. I insist that I will worship nothing I cannot see, and so instead I worship all the things I do see, with all their limits, all their limitations, and all the limiting they do to the expanse of my soul. It is a sorry sight. It is an even skimpier definition of humanity. Without God, human dignity itself is in danger. What else imbues human life with value, what else confers on a person an inalienable dignity, if not the fact that they, too, if there is a God, are more than they seem? No God, no meaning. No God, no purpose. No God, no cosmic quality about us at all. We are simply sand flowing through a corruptible hourglass..

In the long light of human history, then, it is not belief in God that sets us apart. It is the kind of God in which we choose to believe that in the end makes all the difference. Some believe in a God of wrath and become wrathful with others as a result. Some believe in a God who is indifferent to the world and, when they find themselves alone, as all of us do at some time or another, shrivel up and die inside from the indifference they feel in the world around them. Some believe in a God of laws and crumble in spirit and psyche when they themselves break them or else become even more stern in demanding from others standards they themselves cannot keep. They conceive of God a the manipulator of the universe, rather than its blessing-Maker. They project onto God humanity's own small needs.

I have known all of those Gods in my own life. They have all failed me. I have feared God and been judgmental of others. I have used God to get me through life and, as a result, failed to take steps to change life myself. I have been blind to the God within me and so, thinking of God as far away, have failed to make God present to others. I have allowed God to be mediated to me through images of God foreign to the very idea of God: God the puppeteer, God the potentate, God the persecutor make a mockery of the very definition of God. I have come to the conclusion, after a lifetime of looking for God, that such a divinity is a graven image of ourselves, that such a deity is not a god big enough to believe in. Indeed it is the God in whom we choose to believe that determines the rest of life for us. In our conception of the nature of God lies the kernel of the spiritual life. Made in the image of God, we grow in the image of the God we make for ourselves."

This extract used with permission, Harper Collins Religious. In Search of Belief by Joan Chittister: First published in Australia by Harper Collins Religious in 1999. Fax 03 9654 5516 Phone 03 9654 2365 RRP $Aus 26.95

There is widespread cynicism and unbelief in the world today and the Second Vatican Council of the Catholic Church thirty-five years ago admitted that the failure of believers to live up to their beliefs is one of the chief causes of unbelief. Cardinal Lercaro of Bologna spoke of the "vast plain of mediocrity." The Jesuit Cardinal, Henri de Lubac commented: "In the Church the mediocre feel especially at home… and everywhere set the tone of things." And the famous French Jesuit, Ives de Montcheuil, wrote: "We must blame not so much the loosing of evil forces but the INSUFFICIENCY of our witness…. We are the salt of the earth. If humanity is being decomposed, it is because we have not answered our vocation." Powerful words!

Traditional arguments for belief include those of St Augustine - "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless till they rest in you"… The "five ways" of St Thomas Aquinas, and Cardinal Newman, the conscience in us all.

Modern Catholic approaches attempt to unify belief in God and the fact of human existence. The German theologian, Hans Kung, admits that neither belief nor unbelief can be finally proved but the HYPOTHESIS of God answers more questions about the meaning, mystery and purpose of reality and our human existence than does unbelief.

It is most erroneous to assume - as some earlier authors did - that all those who explicitly reject or ignore God are guilty of damnation. The unbeliever can attain a saving faith implied in his or her commitment in conscience to those values and activities which can be reflections of divine reality. In the 4th century, St Augustine could write: "Many who appear to IN the Church are really outside it… and many who appear to be OUTSIDE the Church, are really IN it."

In Search for Christ

We can only believe in the divinity of Christ by a special gift of God, as Christ taught us: "Nobody can come to me unless the Father who sent me, draw him." And when Peter said: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God", Christ responded: "Blessed are you, Peter, because flesh and blood have not revealed this to you BUT MY FATHER IN HEAVEN."

We must all continually pray fro a greater faith. Even the Apostles who witnessed Christ's many miracles did not hesitate to say: "Lord, increase our faith." And if we have only a minimal faith in Christ - almost none - then pray thus: "Christ, IF you exist, help me, enlighten me, guide me."

Often it is not intellectual arguments that lead us to Christ but the saintly witness of Christians. Malcolm Muggeridge claimed that his conversion to Catholicism was inspired by the lives of Sister Teresa of Calcutta and Pope John Paul II.

In our search for God and Christ, there must be less emphasis on the mind and ever greater emphasis on the heart, as I write in my book, "Christ My Brother"….. p 88-89.

"The Heart and Affectivity in Spirituality

The Hebrew word for heart, lev, occurs over a thousand times in the Old Testament which shows how important a role it played in Hebrew life. It is in the heart that one is helped to understand divine things and recollect the presence of God. 'Deep within them I will plant my law, writing it on their hearts' (Jer 31:33). And does not John remind us that 'the man who does not love cannot know God because God is love'?

Aristotle, alas, played down the role of the heart and claimed knowledge to be our highest activity, disparaged the world of affectivity and thereby influenced many Christian thinkers to teach that emotions were highly suspect and so, much damage was done to a warm and authentic Christian spirituality. It tended to remove deep affectivity from God the Father's relationships with us, his children. Consequently, the intellect to know God's commands and the Church's teaching became the dominant element of Christian life. Pascal was so right, however, when he reminded us that 'the heart has reasons the mind does not know of'.

Today we are more aware that God is encountered more in the heart than in the intellect or mind. The dominant characteristic of Eastern Christianity, so rooted in scripture and the experience of the early saints and mystics, is founded on this: the mind is not the ultimate foundation or core of human life. Paul summarised the role of the heart and God's grace in giving us a spiritual knowledge beyond rational knowledge when he wrote: 'that the peace of God, which is so much greater than we can understand, will guard your hearts and thoughts in Christ Jesus' (Phil 4:1)."

A New Understanding of the Heart Symbol

Our hearts play a vital role in scripture, liturgy and especially in all our human relationships. We are commanded to love God 'with our whole heart, our whole mind, our whole strength' (Deut 6:6). And God speaks through the prophet Jeremiah 'When you seek me you will find me, when you seek me with all your heart' (Jer 29:13). We can all experience some fragility in our faith - even the saints did - but let us imitate the man in the gospel who could say the Christ;

"Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief."
(Mark 9:24)