Image - Courtesy of the Pizzaonian Art Institute, Abe Straction, curator
The subject of faith is one that seems infinite. The term itself seems to invoke very different feelings in each of us. To believe something, absolutely, without definitive proof, is asking a great deal of most of us.
I am always troubled by people who have no doubt about their belief systems. This does not mean that I don’t also accept many things on faith, including some of my most important and treasured values.
But it does mean I also have doubt. It sneaks in during the middle of the night like any thief and makes me question the unquestionable. However, as the years go by, I am no longer sure that doubt is a thief - or that the middle of the night has any significance. As a matter of fact, I have come to see doubt as virtue.
I do not believe my occasional bouts with doubt compromises my faith in anyway. But doubt does allow me to rethink what I believe, and in my case it makes me the stronger for its existence.
This begs the question, why? Answering this is tricky, since the answer runs the risk of making me seem insincere in my beliefs. First and perhaps the most important, doubt keeps me from trying to impose by belief systems on someone else.
This is very healthy because it forces me to do the most important thing of all, live what I believe as an example, and let my actions speak for themselves. If my faith is to have any meaning at all, it should be in how I live, not what I talk about or try to impose on others.
Think of how this concept could change the world. At the very least, if nothing good seems to happen by living our faith by our example, it would at least get rid of the barbarism that is foisted on so many by those amongst us who never seem to doubt anything.
As the saving goes – “God help us from those who are trying to save us!”
Brother Giovanni, commenting for Giovanni and Franco, a division of the Pizzaonian Newsertainment Network, Diverti Mento, editor
OPD615
Comments