|
There is more than a little discussion these days over whether a just war is possible, given the developments in weapons technology and the enormous potential nations now have to destroy other nations—not just enemy combatants, but innocent civilians, including children.
St. Paul answered that question many centuries ago in his First Letter to the Corinthians: ""[I]f Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain" (1 Cor. 15:17).
A revolution is a turnaround. Any social turnaround involves a change in shared attitudes and corresponding group behavior.
When Jesus. a social revolutionary, proclaimed that "the kingdom of God is at hand" (Mark 1:14), he added, "repent, therefore, and believe the Gospel." Repentance here--metanoia in Greek--means an attitudinal turnaround, a change of heart and mind. The fact that the kingdom has been "at hand" and not yet fully grasped for more than twenty centuries suggests the absence of the desired turnaround; the revolution is still ongoing.
If you take the word apart, "religion" means re-connect, or tie back.The Latin verb "ligare" means to tie; that's where we get the English word "ligament."
The Bible tells the story of the first break--the cutaway, so to speak--whereby Adam and Eve and their descendants were separated from God through Original Sin. We needed a reconnection; we had to be tied back. They call it redemption (buying back), and this, of course, is God's work. We Christians see it as God's gift to us in Christ, our Redeemer--our buyer back.
Christ had to become man in order to do this. As God, he had nothing whereby he could die; as man, we had nothing whereby we could live, observed St. Augustine. But when God became man in Christ it was possible to get the re-ligging (the work of re-ligion) underway.
So religion is man-made to the extent that the God man redeemed us and established a Church through which the work of redemption can continue down through the ages.
Doubt does not disqualify one from the community of believers; it simply serves to certify a person's membership in the human race. All humans, including all believers, have doubts.
Christians do well from time to time to recall the man who said to Jesus (Mark 24:9), "Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief." This might be called the most Christian of all prayers. Jesus had just assured this man that his son, who was ill, would be alright if he, the father, just had faith. I have faith, I do believe, he replied, but I'm carrying with my faith a good measure of unbelief. I need help. As do we all.
Mother Teresa's experience was not what you would call classic atheism. She didn't deny the existence of God. It seems to me that her question, shared by many of us at different times, was not: does God exist? She struggled with a different question: does God exist right here with me at this time? It is an experience of darkness. It can be unimaginably frightening; it can lead to despair.
Doubt is an ongoing dimension of religious faith. Grace, another word for God's love, is stronger than the deepest doubt.
What Islam Really Says About Violence, Rights and Other Religions
Gomaa, Fadlallah, Mubarak, Khan, Siddiqi, Ellison, others | On Faith
Comments (14)