God's foot in our door
God begins with our feeble assent to faith - that first step of dark faith that does not yet fully know or understand it believes. Our openness to love what we do not yet know, our obedience to the word which we do not yet understand, is God's foot in our door. Now faith can take root and begin to grow, fed by grace and our experiences, which, penetrated by the light of faith, teach us about the content of that faith.
It is all just words until it is put into action.
It is in applying what we believe to our real living - in living and loving the truth - that we come to the necessary experiential knowledge of what we believe: "If you abide in my word...you shall know the truth." (Jn 8)
And in this knowing, what we once accepted in faith and seemed to belong only to the realm of thought or will becomes for us a living reality, even a joyous possession. This is not to say that we can know and possess God - faith is still faith and not knowledge, for God is always the impenetrable One, holy, infinite, inscrutable Mystery. We cannot have immediate knowledge of Him no matter how profoundly He allows us to penetrate His truth in this life. We only receive this truth (always through Christ), accept humbly, listen obediently.
It is always pure gift; a gift that grows.
The essence of our being is changed by our believing, or we do not really believe at all. Our faith cannot remain at the periphery of our lives - we must be open to the "divine invasion" of His love, allow ourselves to be transformed by grace, let the light of our faith penetrate every practical aspect of our living. It will not do to go through the motions, to mechanically perform the rituals "imposed upon us" from outside of ourselves (though this is a start). We must be fully present, participating in our own lives and in the sacramental life of the Church with the fullness of our personhood, offering ourselves in thanksgiving.
Then we learn at last who and what we are - in giving ourselves we discover ourselves. In assenting to truth in dark faith, we are penetrated by its light. In letting go of our own ideas, we freed to be filled with His.
And His are so much better than ours.
God begins with our feeble assent to faith - that first step of dark faith that does not yet fully know or understand it believes. Our openness to love what we do not yet know, our obedience to the word which we do not yet understand, is God's foot in our door. Now faith can take root and begin to grow, fed by grace and our experiences, which, penetrated by the light of faith, teach us about the content of that faith.
It is all just words until it is put into action.
It is in applying what we believe to our real living - in living and loving the truth - that we come to the necessary experiential knowledge of what we believe: "If you abide in my word...you shall know the truth." (Jn 8)
And in this knowing, what we once accepted in faith and seemed to belong only to the realm of thought or will becomes for us a living reality, even a joyous possession. This is not to say that we can know and possess God - faith is still faith and not knowledge, for God is always the impenetrable One, holy, infinite, inscrutable Mystery. We cannot have immediate knowledge of Him no matter how profoundly He allows us to penetrate His truth in this life. We only receive this truth (always through Christ), accept humbly, listen obediently.
It is always pure gift; a gift that grows.
The essence of our being is changed by our believing, or we do not really believe at all. Our faith cannot remain at the periphery of our lives - we must be open to the "divine invasion" of His love, allow ourselves to be transformed by grace, let the light of our faith penetrate every practical aspect of our living. It will not do to go through the motions, to mechanically perform the rituals "imposed upon us" from outside of ourselves (though this is a start). We must be fully present, participating in our own lives and in the sacramental life of the Church with the fullness of our personhood, offering ourselves in thanksgiving.
Then we learn at last who and what we are - in giving ourselves we discover ourselves. In assenting to truth in dark faith, we are penetrated by its light. In letting go of our own ideas, we freed to be filled with His.
And His are so much better than ours.
posted by KathrynTherese at 5:57 PM
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