I have often heard the old saying ‘Seeing is believing’. I think it may come from ‘doubting’ Thomas who features in the Easter story at this time of the year. More recently, I have found more meaning in the saying ‘Believing is Seeing.’ (The Gospel of John states: ‘Blessed are those who believe and have not seen.’ Jn 20:29). In a Christian context ‘Believing’ means accepting God’s word, accepting that God is the source of all life and that all of life is Mystery. The Christian theology of the Trinity is one way of grappling with this mystery that emerged in the new Church in the years and centuries after Jesus.
We, human beings, are born into this world in all kinds of circumstances. Some are born into poverty; some are born with serious illness or disability, some into one parent families, some into wealthy families. We are all born into the Mystery of life. The awareness of this reality has grown and developed over many years and many struggles. There have been all kinds of distortions of the meaning of faith but for us in the Christian tradition the bottom line is accepting that we belong together in a community of Love and solidarity –a community that is always reaching out to include all people and all of creation. It is a mystery based on our faith in the Trinity that we can never fully understand and yet it is the only way to understand who we are as humans, our destiny and the meaning of life.
Science and spirituality have in recent years come much closer and are not now in opposition. They are both coming to the same conclusions about the world, only using different language. Both now accept that everything that exists is in relationship. Pope Francis has emphasised this connectivity in his amazing encyclical, ‘Laudato Si -On Care of our Common Home’. The Vatican astronomer George Coyne recently quoted the author Anne Lamott: “The opposite of faith is not doubt. The opposite of faith is certainty.”
Faith has evolved over many generations and in many different communities. People of faith are spiritual people –some belong to a specific religious tradition -others opt out of any particular church or religion. They are spiritual but not religious and are sometimes described as the ‘nones’. All of us are searching. We are on a voyage of discovery.
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