One of the things I have noticed in the process of writing icons by way of egg tempera is that continually throughout the process there are moments when I look down at what I have completed and say to myself, “That looks great already. Maybe I should just stop here.”  Who wouldn’t be tempted to think this? It is easier to stop when something already looks good, plus this removes the risk of messing things up in the later part of the process. But to do so would be to short change it. It never ceases to amaze me to see an image that looks good already transformed into something even more beautiful when more work is put into it. Yes, there are risks of making mistakes in each step of the process, but mistakes can be corrected. Mistakes also keep us humble.

This same process can be applied to the Christian life. I am fairly certain that a common temptation is to simply live our Christian faith in a “good enough” fashion rather than risk sainthood. Makes sense to me. If things aren’t broken, if my efforts at living a Christian life are going fairly well, why mess with it? Trying to attain even greater heights in the Christian life puts one at risk for a greater fall. But to avoid the risk is to avoid the call that God places before all of us, that being the perpetual call to greater holiness. The tough thing about embracing this call is the certainty that when we do, our temptations to sin will grow exponentially. That’s a fact. Like the writing of an icon, however, corrections can always be made. God’s mercy is endless. We learn about the areas we need to grow by risking failure, and even expecting to fail with the knowledge that when we do the only real failure is in not getting up again.

The last step of writing an icon is to paint a white line around the halo that matches the color of the white gessoed board one starts with at the beginning of the process. My teacher Irene said something that has been echoing in my mind since Saturday about the white line. “If you reach the end of writing the icon and you are still not holy,” she said, “this final white line invites you to go back to the beginning and try again.”

I’ll be starting with a new white board today.

]]> http://www.blessedisthekingdom.com/2010/07/27/the-process-of-growing-in-faith/feed/ 0 http://www.blessedisthekingdom.com/2010/05/06/overcoming-prejudice/ http://www.blessedisthekingdom.com/2010/05/06/overcoming-prejudice/#comments Fri, 07 May 2010 01:12:35 +0000 Fr. Christian Mathis http://www.blessedisthekingdom.com/?p=2781

You cannot be a man of faith unless you know how to doubt. You cannot believe in God unless you are capable of questioning the authority of prejudice, even though that prejudice may seem to be religious. Faith is not blind conformity to a prejudice–a “pre-judgment.” It is a decision, a judgment that is fully and deliberately taken in the light of a truth that cannot be proven. It is not merely the acceptance of a  decision that has been made by somebody else.

–Thomas Merton

This week I have been reading a book I discovered at a used bookstore here in Austin. The book is called God and Man by Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh. One of the chapters is entitled “Doubt and the Christian Life” where he speaks eloquently on a topic I have found myself in complete agreement with for sometime.  He describes the pattern what happens when the faith of childhood is confronted by the normal questions of a young adult.

This kind of faith – the faith of one who simply takes things on trust – sooner or later will be badly battered by life and by problems, by doubt in fact, or if you prefer, by perplexity. What happens so often with people is when they are young, they are given a number of certainties which they accept on trust from their parents, their teachers, their surrounding, the milieu in which they live. After that, this minimum of faith is kept as a sort of treasure. We develop in all sorts of ways, but our awareness of the world invisible and of the certainties it entails does not grow with it. A moment comes round the age of 18, perhaps earlier or later, when a child in us, the little child of 8 who has collected all the faith he was capable of and formed a world outlook which is childish, is confronted with an opponent, an adversary within himself.  A girl, a young man, of 18, 20 or 25, says ‘Nonsense, you can’t believe that’, and then an argument starts which is doomed to lead to the defeat of faith simply because it is the argument between a little child with a pure heart and uninvolved thinking, against someone who poses to the childish nature the problems of another age, another level of understanding, another level of perception of the world.

In my ministry I have frequently observed those who are content with an understanding and participation in our faith that is at the level of a child. It is always difficult for me to understand this. In so many other ways the person has continued to grow and to learn, but when it comes to faith, the person stays focused on childhood.

Having a childlike faith is certainly something we should all seek, but having a childish faith will certainly keep us from growing stronger. I am happy to have come across this simple reminder in my reading this week.

Catholics speak of the Eucharist as the source and summit of the Christian life. It would be impossible to exhaust this holy gift, even if one were to attempt to do so. Aquilina’s compilation of reflections is a great resource for those preparing to receive the Eucharist, or for those who wish to linger a bit longer once the liturgy has come to a close. I would highly recommend it as a resource to those who spend time in prayer with the Blessed Sacrament. It is the type of book one could return to again and again for spiritual nourishment. 

Here is a taste of one reflection included in this book by J.R.R. Tolkien,

The only cure for sagging (or) fainting faith is Communion. Though always Itself, perfect and complete and inviolate, the Blessed Sacrament does not operate completely and once for all in any of us. Like the act of Faith it must be continuous and grow by exercise. Frequency is of the highest effect. Seven times a week is more nourishing than seven times at intervals.

If one is looking for an accessible book on the Eucharist that might lead one to a deeper life of prayer, look no further than Fire of God’s Love.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book Reviewer program from The Catholic Company . Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Fire of God’s Love.

Imagine your life without fear.

This is the challenge given by Max Lucado in his most recent book, Fearless. One need not look very far in our current society to find those who are selling fear. It seems that every form of media daily uses our own worries against us. Max Lucado gives a simple reminder to Christians that we are meant to live lives of faith rather than fear.

Lucado begins by asking the question, Why are we afraid? and continues by suggesting thirteen types of fear that can stop us in our tracks when we forget the words uttered so many times by our Lord and echoed in recent days by the late Pope John Paul II, Be Not Afraid!

Some of those fears include the fear of not mattering, not protecting my kids, death, God not being real, and global calamity. Each chapter of this book had something of value to offer, but I was struck most by the chapter devoted to the fear of disappointing God entitled, God’s Ticked Off At Me. Lucado focuses part of this chapter on the story told in Matthew Chapter 9 of the healing of the paralytic. Jesus’ words to the paralytic were, Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven. Lucado draws the reader’s attention to the fact that more than anything, it is sin that can paralyze one with fear, the fear that God’s infinite mercy will run out. Through the story of Adam and Eve, Lucado reminds us that,

Fear, mismanaged, leads to sin. Sin leads to hiding. Since we’ve all sinned, we all hide, not in bushes, but in eighty-hour workweeks, temper tantrums, and religious busyness. We avoid contact with God.

Fearless calls upon Christians to embrace the freedom that comes from faith and reliance in God’s grace. I highly recommend it to those in search of an antidote to the anxiety shared by so many in our world today.

I believe so that I may understand.

This is the saying of St. Anselm of Canterbury that is explored in Pope John Paul II’s encyclical, Fides et Ratio. John Paul reminds us that

…there is a profound and indissoluble unity between the knowledge of reason and the knowledge of faith. The world and all that happens within it, including history and the fate of peoples, are realities to be observed, analysed and assessed with all the resources of reason, but without faith ever being foreign to the process. Faith intervenes not to abolish reason’s autonomy nor to reduce its scope for action, but solely to bring the human being to understand that in these events it is the God of Israel who acts. Thus the world and the events of history cannot be understood in depth without professing faith in the God who is at work in them. Faith sharpens the inner eye, opening the mind to discover in the flux of events the workings of Providence.

I am always dumbfounded by those, especially Christians, who continue to see a dichotomy between faith and reason. It seems clear to me that if we are to claim that God created the universe, how could it be that science would ever lead us away from the truth about his creation? The need by both Christians and atheists to separate faith and reason is a misguided effort. The world that I know is never separated so neatly into individual categories. More often than not things bleed into one another in a way that is beyond our control. As a Christian I continue to be amazed by what science is able to discover as it gives me more and more glimpses into the mind of God. Far from being scandalized by the new discoveries of science, I am humbled and filled with wonder and awe.

There are atheists who are jubilant as science continues to fill in the gaps left to the realm of religion and Christians who continue to be threatened and scandalized by the same discoveries. To both groups I can only reply that the god you are describing is much smaller and much weaker than the one that I have experienced. The one true God would never be threatened by the truth because He is the Truth. Any real discoveries about the universe are old news for Him as they have origin in Him. When we begin with belief and the understanding that our world is intelligible, there is nothing to fear in science’s search for the truth. It is only when we rely upon superstition, rather than faith, that problems arise.

Let us continue to be Christians who are seeking the truth and let us have faith that God will never lie to us as we do so.

Pope John Paul continues his thoughts on faith and reason in Fides et Ratio by turning to the fullness of revelation, Jesus Christ. He reminds his readers that,

Underlying all the Church’s thinking is the awareness that she is the bearer of a message which has its origin in God himself.

The knowledge which we have received directly from God through Jesus Christ is far greater than any knowledge we can attain through human reason and is in fact the origin of all knowledge. The Incarnation forms the basis for all Christian understanding about ourselves and our world. John Paul writes eloquently about this mystery when he says,

In the Incarnation of the Son of God we see forged the enduring and definitive synthesis which the human mind of itself could not even have imagined: the Eternal enters time, the Whole lies hidden in the part, God takes on a human face. The truth communicated in Christ’s Revelation is therefore no longer confined to a particular place or culture, but is offered to every man and woman who would welcome it as the word which is the absolutely valid source of meaning for human life. Now, in Christ, all have access to the Father, since by his Death and Resurrection Christ has bestowed the divine life which the first Adam had refused (cf. Rom 5:12-15). Through this Revelation, men and women are offered the ultimate truth about their own life and about the goal of history. As the Constitution Gaudium et Spes puts it, “only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light”. Seen in any other terms, the mystery of personal existence remains an insoluble riddle. Where might the human being seek the answer to dramatic questions such as pain, the suffering of the innocent and death, if not in the light streaming from the mystery of Christ’s Passion, Death and Resurrection?

I have often said to others that Christians speak most often of Christ when talking about God because we know more about Him than we do about the Father and the Holy Spirit. He was here on earth as one of us for 33 years. People saw, heard and touched Him and as a result He was able to reveal the inner life of the Trinity to us in a much more profound way than was ever possible before.

As he continues to reflect upon the theme of faith and reason, John Paul begins to shift his thoughts toward the gift of reason. He suggests that our use of reason in contemplating the mysteries of God is a way of deepening our understanding of them. It is a way to bring our entire selves into communion with our creator.

In short, the knowledge proper to faith does not destroy the mystery; it only reveals it the more, showing how necessary it is for people’s lives: Christ the Lord “in revealing the mystery of the Father and his love fully reveals man to himself and makes clear his supreme calling”, which is to share in the divine mystery of the life of the Trinity.

John Paul suggests that far from faith and reason being in opposition to one another, they are meant to strengthen one another and ultimately lead to the same destination. Those who are sincerely seeking the Truth, whether through faith or natural reason will be led to the Kingdom of God in all its fullness. For Christians this means that we will one day share more fully in the life of the Trinity. It means that God has chosen to enter our life, so that we might share more fully in His. The pope’s focus on Jesus Christ’s revelation by way of both faith and reason concludes with these words,

The ultimate purpose of personal existence, then, is the theme of philosophy and theology alike. For all their difference of method and content, both disciplines point to that “path of life” (Ps 16:11) which, as faith tells us, leads in the end to the full and lasting joy of the contemplation of the Triune God.

What greater purpose is there than to share in the full and lasting joy of the Lord? This is the gift God has offered us. May we receive it with continual thanksgiving.