I cannot teach you about faith my brother. It’s essence defies clear understanding; ambiguity surrounds it. Yet this is the essence of faith. Faith derives not from rational logic but from that for which no rational logic exists. No rational logic explains the love between this man and that woman, nor between those two women nor those two men. Rational logic is inadequate to explain love and thus to explain faith for faith is love and love is faith; separate yet intertwined.
I cannot see salt in sea water yet I know it is there, as I know faith is there; a tautology explains it. “There is evidence of the salt,” you say? “Taste it and see,” you say.
I say drink in the flavor of faith. Taste it. Swirl it around in your mouth. How does it taste ? How does Hope taste? Or Love? What is the flavor of desire? Is it not part of the spice garden that is the soul? So it is with Faith brother. So it is.
“God does not exist!” you exclaim. “There is no evidence.” My brother, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. It is simply absence of empirical evidence. You do not require empirical evidence to support love for your spouse nor your children nor your friends. Why do you require it to support faith in a greater power than we?
It is not that God is a vengeful or a punishing one. We are graced with choice and free will. Nature is nature and will not be tamed by God or man. Bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. God did not cause either. He neither prevents nor causes the things that happen to us. Rather, He keeps our souls safe regardless of the good and the bad we experience during our earthly journey.
“There is no afterlife,” you say. “I died and came back. I saw nothing. No one was there. There was not even darkness. Only absence.” Absence. My brother, this is not evidence of anything at all. It is only absence and who are we to define or explain it?
For the faithful, life’s darkest moments, most frightening moments, are made bearable through faith. “Though I shall walk through the valley of death, I shall fear no evil for thou are with me. thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23: XX). During these times I have felt the Holy Spirit overwhelm my soul with strength and love. The Holy Spirit did not cure me, the doctors did. The Holy Spirit gave me the strength to survive. Absent the Holy Spirit, I might have died simply because I was too weak to bear it.
So my brother, do not discourage the faithful. Do not denigrate faith. For many, it is through faith alone that they survive each day. Why destroy someone’s hope by casting doubt on their faith. You do not feel their faith any more than you feel each individual’s love for another. It cannot be seen and that is as it should be. Faith is believing in the absence of evidence. Evidence, in fact, obviates faith.
Faith does not come easy nor to the feint of heart nor the weak-willed. Faith requires tremendous commitment, focus, and strength. To believe in what one cannot see is the very nature of faith and requires the greatest of courage. Faith is courage manifest.
