God's revelation and human understanding Archives

You Can’t Get Off the Train Until It Stops!

When it comes to religion, we tend to try to blend the mentality of long, long ago with modern times; we pray with the words of long, long ago about modern things; and we even use the geography of long ago and far away when we think about and pray about the world of today and where and how we live in it.
   I guess you could say we’re behaving like “old-timers,” reluctant to shed all the customs, values, and attitudes of long ago and far away—even though they were mostly not places and events of our personal experience.
   We still read and meditate about old narrations and customs, and we try to adapt the worldview, values, and behavior of favorite characters in old stories and books.
   When we read and study the New Testament, in effect we’re learning about the life, faiths, customs, and politics of the Middle East and the Mediterranean world of about two thousand years ago!
   When we study the Old Testament, we’re dealing with local traditions and events older by far!
   Those long-ago years have come and gone, for better or for worse. We may be inspired by some aspects of this long ago past, perhaps many—but it’s not our time and place. We have to deal with our contemporary traditions and events. We have to live, love, and serve God in our days and in contemporary ways even though we treasure, esteem, and try to follow some ancient and long practiced ways of life.
   We may value every word saved and passed on to us about the people and practices of ancient times—but don’t forget that they were ancient times, not ours.
   Some things, some details, some challenges from ancient times are still with us—but many are not, and we barely understand some of them anymore even though we study hard.

   If we aspire to talk, behave, and generally act just like admirable people of ancient days did, we’re almost masquerading!
   One could say that our contemporary challenge is to distill the essence, the best of past belief and practices, and accommodate them to our contemporary culture, language, and way of thinking.
   For example, it’s wonderful to visit the Holy Land and to actually travel to some of the places we had long imagined—but the places aren’t like thousands of years ago. Out treasured historical memories are one thing, and present-day realities are another.
   Sometimes we’re bothered by too much change but living things (like you and I) live in a constant process of change, reassessment, and development.
   We have to use a lot of imagination for times past, since what was passed on to us from long ago days was only a small part and a particular remembrance of a world just as busy, and fumbling and bumbling, as ours!
   A good museum can be fascinating, interesting, stimulating, and helpful to our lives—but we shouldn’t necessarily live with or venerate every value and perspective of ancient times and peoples.
   Don’t be distracted and knocked off course by yearning for all of the past, for living means constantly changing to accommodate the past to the present. Today is different from yesterday, and today you’re no longer the person you were yesterday.
   What a good museum does is replicate some aspects of the past for present day students and learners—but it’s not about living today.
   It isn’t easy, always changing and growing, but that’s what life is about!

13 August 2023

Getting a Little Personal . . .

A dictionary definition of Person is:
   [from Middle English persone, from Old French, from Latin persona, literally an actor’s face mask, hence a character, person, probably from Etruscan phersu, a mask]
   1. A human being, especially as distinguished from a thing or lower animal; individual man, woman, or child.
   2. [Chiefly British] an individual regarded slightingly, as one of a lower status.
   3. a) a living human body.    b) bodily form or appearance [to be neat about one’s person].
   4. personality; self; being.
   5. Grammar: a) division into three sets of pronouns and, in most languages, corresponding verb forms. the use of which indicates and is determined by the identity of the subject. b) any of these sets.
   6. [Archaic] a role in a play; character
   7. Law: any individual or incorporate group having certain legal rights and responsibilities
   8. Theology: any of the three modes of being (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost) in the Trinity

A dictionary definition of (Latin) Persona is:
   [a mask, especially as worn by actors in Greek and Roman drama]
   1. role, part, character, person represented by an actor
   2. in general: the part which anyone plays
   3. a personality, individuality, character

In Greek and Roman drama, the same actor could play more than one role (provided that the roles did not require being on the stage at the same time) using different facial masks and clothing—and, of course, speaking with a different voice.
There was an old custom of placing at the beginning of the text of a play a “Dramatis Personae,” a descriptive list of the characters in the play, not of the players themselves.

   All this has something to do with how we understand the blessed Trinity, often described, as “one God in three divine persons.”
   The way this sounds in contemporary language is very different from how it would have sounded many long centuries ago.
   Should Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be more understood in the relatively modern sense of the word as distinct and separate individual persons?
   Or, should they be more understood, from the long ago meaning of “person,” as referring to three different masks, aspects, roles of the same player?
   Actually, it’s not an either-or situation; it’s more like a blend of both these and other understandings as they have evolved over the centuries.
   Sometimes we refer to things like this as a “mystery”—not in the sense of a modern “Who-done-it?” but more as something that we somewhat, but not fully, understand.
   In that, we’re a lot like the description that Shakespeare put into the mouth of Macbeth: “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more.”
   In the great drama of creation and existence, you could say that we are somewhat old-fashioned in that we are clearer about the Dramatis Personae, the descriptive list of all the characters in the play of life, then we are about the players themselves.
   Anyway, we don’t have to know everything —and that exceeds our abilities in any case. But we do know for sure about the love of God for each of us and the work of God for our salvation!

6 August 2023

Accumulated Meanings

Languages are always changing—in the sense that the meaning of their words often is changing and evolving. That’s why, for instance, that occasionally, in a play of Shakespeare, we may have hardly any idea at all about what certain words or expressions mean (or meant when Shakespeare was alive).
   That’s also why it can be a really tricky business translating a very old document written in a foreign language. It helps a lot to know who the writer was and when and where and why was the document first written.
   Take, for example, a common, familiar word like person. It has evolved a lot.
   It can be traced back to ancient Greek, where it referred to the mask that an actor wore in a play and that identified the role he or she was playing.
   And, sometimes in plays, since there were often few professional actors, the same performer played more than one character, using different masks (and dressed and spoke in different ways) for each.
   That’s why the ancient Greek word for the actor’s mask gradual evolved into our common word person (which has come to mean something else entirely).
   A dictionary definition of person says that it is a noun, derived from Middle English persone, derived from Old French, derived from Latin persona: literally an actor’s face mask (hence a character, person) probably derived from ancient Greek.
   It now has many meanings, including: 1. A human being, especially as distinguished from a thing or lower animal; an individual man, woman, or child. 2. a) a living human body b) bodily form or appearance [to be neat about one’s person]. 3. Personality; self; being. 4. Law any individual or incorporated group having certain legal rights and responsibilities. 5. Theology the Trinity.

   Theology itself has changes and developments. In the very early days of Christianity, the common meaning of person still was that of an actor’s face mask—while in our day it’s much more that of an individual man, woman, or child.
   This reminds me of my Catechism lesson in preparation for First Communion (which reflected the ancient meaning of person):
   Q: “How many persons are there in God?”
   A: “In God there are three Divine persons, really distinct, and equal in all things—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”
   Of course, as little kids we weren’t taught the etymology of the word, “person.” Even so, it wouldn’t have and couldn’t have adequately explained the mystery of the nature of God—but it could help a little.
   However, in light of the complex etymology of the word, “Three Divine persons” minimally suggests three different roles God plays and three different kinds of relationships God has to human beings and to all the rest of creation:
– God as the loving begetter, maker, creator, and source of all that exists (Father);
– God as the intervenor in human history who uniquely reveals himself and his love through the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus (Son);
– God as the sustainer, guide, and inspirer of our lives, the interior wellspring of our creativity, strength, and love (Holy Ghost).
   This is but one (and not the only) way of describing the one God. No matter what, all believers in the one God are talking about this one and same God whose total complexities are beyond and defy our separate traditions and our so many attempts at description!

4 June 2023

Reaching for the Realm of God

   Come, let us build ourselves a city
   and a tower with its top in the sky,
                      (Genesis 11:4)

No, this wasn’t what originally inspired the tall buildings of New York or other modern cities, even though their tall constructions are often called “skyscrapers”.
   Remember, the story of the Tower of Babel has a worldview that the earth is flat and that the highest heaven (sky) is the realm of God.
   The aspiration to be able to build high enough to reach the realm of God was the heighth of presumption—and, in the story, linguistic confusion, misunderstanding, and being dispersed over all the earth was the price to be paid for this presumption.
   Beware! Often the attempts to deepen our knowledge of matters of faith run the risk of a similar sort of presumption. We tend to think that our construction of sophisticated ideas that narrow slightly the parameters of the mystery we are trying to better understand actually may explain the unknown.
   It’s like the tale of the blind men and an elephant. They never had encountered an elephant before, but by touching it they attempted to describe it. But each touched only one part of the elephant. None of them could describe the whole creature.
   Theological concepts and constructions like matter, form, person, foreknowledge, substance, accident, body, soul may help us to understand and explain a part of what we believe—but which in its totality is beyond our abilities.
   All this doesn’t mean that theology is inappropriate or a waste of time. But be careful not to deceive yourself that by learning a little you’re building so high that you’ll will actually be able to attain the fullness of the knowledge of God.

   Scientific knowledge is very different from faith. Science is concerned with the tangible, the observable, the measurable, the provable aspects of the created world and universe and all that is in it.
   Faith doesn’t disparage science, but is more concerned with revelation, confidence, and trust.
   God speaks through all the beauty and wonder of his creation, but he also communicates through the revealed word, tempered by the understanding and limits of understanding of those who were inspired to speak and write it.
   Most of us, if we take a flight from one place to another have hardly any knowledge or training in flying a plane—but we trust in the training and skill of the pilots, even though the technical details escape us.
   There are multitudinous details to our religious lives that we can thoroughly understand since they are human customs, traditions, rules, and regulations.
   But the principal things we believe are beyond our complete understanding. In this, we’re like one of the blind men encountering the elephant. We understand something, some component or aspect—but understanding and explaining everything is beyond us.
   For example, the nature of God, the Trinity, the identity of Jesus, the resurrection, the functioning of the sacraments, creation and evolution, infallibility, the inspiration of the Bible, providence, destiny, death, life after death, to name just a few.
   Of course it’s legitimate to build bigger, better, and taller towers—but they’ll never reach the realm of God.

22 May 2022

Zeroing in on the Unknowable

In a way, this describes what, over the centuries, theologians often have been doing—and even scientists, too! But, remember, getting more and more insight and information doesn’t mean we fully understand what ultimately remains a mystery and unknowable.
   This is not a critique of faith. Believing and knowing are two different things. Knowledge is more a matter of exploring, learning, testing, and gaining understanding. On the other hand, belief is more a matter of confidence, trusting, and daring.
   You may be my friend and I love and trust you, but that doesn’t mean that I had thoroughly investigated everything you thought, said, and did over the whole course of your life to reach this conclusion.
   A classic example: the Bible. We often say that it is the revealed word of God. Does that mean, can that mean, that every single word of the Bible was said by, was communicated by God?
   The Bible is not one unified book, but a collection of various kinds of writings and reflections by many different people over a span of many centuries—and translated by a variety of different translators.
   You’re not meant to take every single sentence or statement in the Bible and trust that it is exactly what God said—but you can trust that what you read is somebody’s interpretation in good faith of what God inspired and how it is to be understood.
   Another example: the Sacraments. We often presume that if the right person says the right words in the right language and performs the right actions certain spiritual things necessarily will happen.
   But, that’s almost a definition of magic. These may be regulations for celebrating the particular sacrament, but the sacramental action remains mysterious and also requires prayer and acts of faith and trust in God and his revelations and his love.

   The Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas is an outstanding example of the successes and the limitations of an in-depth investigation into the nature of the mysteries of our faith.
   Using the intellectual concepts and tools of Aristotle, Thomas explored the meaning of the core expressions of our Christian beliefs, especially and notably the Eucharist.
   He increased our understanding of what is ultimately not completely knowable. With the distinctions of matter and form, substance and accident, and other Aristotelian concepts, Thomas profoundly advanced our understanding of our faith.
   But no matter how deeply he explored the mystery and how effectively he articulated his findings, he still did not have all the answers.
   His concept of transubstantiation is brilliant, but it’s not a complete answer or a solution, in spite of its well-honed and respected deep insights, to this mystery of the Eucharist.
   We know that Jesus broke and distributed bread and poured and shared wine at his last supper with his disciples, usually considered a Seder, a meal where the salvific acts of God were symbolically remembered.
   Was he adding to the traditional symbols of salvific acts of God to be ever remembered and celebrated by his followers? Or, even more, was he saying that the partakers were somehow mystically sharing his very life, body and blood?
   If you can’t quite fully understand, you’re in good company. Thomas didn’t either, although he did a great job of zeroing in on the unknowable. Ultimately it’s not a matter of knowledge, but of belief.

24 April 2022

Getting in Touch with God

For millennia, god-seekers would go to special places better to communicate with a particular god. Often they would go to a special building dedicated or consecrated to the worship or service of the god.
   It was not only dedicated to the particular god but also was considered the principal place for the public and private worship of that god in the neighborhood, town, province, or country.
   It was often referred to as the house of the god, as though the god lived in that place—or at least that a believer could especially get in touch with the god there.
   And, there was a tendency to presume that if the special building, the temple, was bigger and more beautiful than most others, access to the god would be easier and better.
   According to the Bible, a god got in touch with Abraham, and Abraham dutifully did what the god asked of him. His immediate descendants worshiped that same god as their family god, known first as the God of Abraham, then the God of Abraham and Isaac, then the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel.
   Moses encountered this god of the Israelites, first in the experience of the burning bush and then later on the mountain. This god of their ancestors made a covenant with them to be their god and they, in turn, to be his people.
   He promised to lead them through Sinai to a promised land of plenty and instructed them how to worship him.
   At first it was on the mountain, then later where the ark, the portable precious container for the stone tablets of the covenant, was kept.
   Hundreds of years later, the Israelites now living in the promised land, it fell to Solomon to build a temple to house the ark, the privileged place of communication with their god, and to provide a place for sacrificial worship of him.

   Although one of the commands of the covenant was not to have any other gods before the God of Israel, many years later prophets began to teach that not only should the Israelites not worship any other god but also that no other god really exists!
   That temple of Solomon, destroyed, then later rebuilt, and still later expanded, was finally and definitively destroyed by the Romans.
   The faithful descendants of the early Israelites, then known as Jews, never had a temple again—but they assembled for learning and praying in local buildings, called synagogues, thereafter.
   The early Jesus-followers, initially Jews all, followed this same tradition, assembling for learning and praying, for “the breaking of the bread,” in local gathering places, later known as churches.
   Hundreds of years later, when Christianity was established as the official religion of the Roman Empire, churches began to be considered more like temples, in the sense of a special building for worshiping a god.
   For us, is a church the only place to get in touch with God? No, the church is a special, assembly place, but individual worshipers can get in touch with God anywhere his presence can be discerned or manifested.
   Since the one God is the creator of all things and people, that actually means everywhere, in everything, and through everyone. God can be found and seen in all his works, in all the wonder of his creations and creatures.
   It’s challenging to realize that everyone and anyone, no matter how unlikely they may seem, may manifest something of God to us and that we may be able to get in touch with God through them.

19 December 2021

R.I.P.

R.I.P. is the familiar abbreviation we use for the Latin expression, “Requiescat in pace” and, coincidentally, also for its English translation, “Rest in peace”.
   In Christian tradition, it is used in reference to someone who has died. Actually it is a radical affirmation—that death is not the end of a person’s existence.
   For some people, “rest” is just a softer word than “death”, a kind of consoling metaphor. However, in Scripture it is clear that it is much more than a mere metaphor.
   In Matthew 9:24 and Luke 6:52, regarding the dead daughter of an official of the synagogue, Jesus says she “. . . is not dead but sleeping”, and then restores her to life.
   In John 11:13 regarding his dead friend, Lazarus, Jesus says “Our friend Lazarus is asleep, but I am going to awaken him,” and then restores him to life.
   Both these stories are about a restoration to one’s previous life, but the story of Jesus’ resurrection is different. Although changed, he is restored to his previous life for a while, but then disappears, caught up into the glory of God, entering a new stage of life.
   This new stage of life is promised to others. In John 12:26, Jesus says “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be.”
   It is this promise that inspires believers to look at death almost like sleep, to trust that an awakening will come, somehow, someday, somewhere to a fulness of life beyond what we now experience.
   This trust and confidence was the inspiration of the first Christians and early martyrs and still inspires, encourages, and consoles believers even to our day.
   Our folk imaginations and religious customs notwithstanding, we know little more about this future than the certitude of Jesus’ example and promise.
   That’s what enables us to look at one who clearly has died and say, “Rest in peace.”

   All this is affirmed in the beautiful faith testimony of the Funeral Liturgy: “In him [Christ our Lord] the hope of blessed resurrection has dawned, that those saddened by the certainty of dying might be consoled by the promise of immortality to come. Indeed for your faithful, Lord, life is changed not ended, and, when this earthly dwelling turns to dust, an eternal dwelling is made ready for them in heaven.”
   Although we often confidently speak of those who have died as already enjoying the fullness of the life of heaven, there is no clear timetable for this awakening.
   Is it right after death? At the last judgement? At some other time in between? Regarding this, too, we “know neither the day nor the hour.” (Matthew 25:13). But, then, for the sleeper, does the length of the time spent sleeping really matter?
   When it comes to details, no matter how we imagine life after death and no matter how commonly accepted certain traditions are, there is little that we know for certain beyond the Lord’s promise itself.
   And, that’s no small thing! In faith, we consider the departed as though asleep, not terminated. We believe that we will see them again—but exactly how, when, and where is beyond our present knowing.
   We are disciples of the risen Lord, and we trust in his word and his love.
   Sometimes we imaginatively embellish our faith convictions with too much speculation. This obscures the power and wonder of what we believe, and makes it easier for doubters to casually dismiss our certitude as childish fantasy and outdated superstition.
   We can confidently rest in peace, since we know for sure that our awakening will come.

31 October 2021

Shekinah

It’s not a biblical word as such, although it does describe some things in the Bible. It’s an English transliteration of a Hebrew word that refers to the divine presence and particularly associated with a manifestation of the divine presence. For example:
   – the pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night that led the Israelites through the desert towards the Promised Land.
   – the experiences of Moses (and later Ezekiel) on the mountain of God.
   – the manifestation of the presence of God that clouded the great Temple of Solomon during its consecration ceremony.
   – the vision Ezekiel had of the glory of God leaving the Temple and Jerusalem itself because of the faithlessness of so many of its people.
   The word also could be used in reference to other kinds of manifestations of the divine presence. For example,
   – the glory of God, sung by the angels, at the birth of the Messiah in Bethlehem. (Luke 2:8-14)
   – the prayer of Simeon, the righteous and devout, who took the infant Jesus into his arms in the Temple and blessed God that he lived to see “a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel.” (Luke 2:32)
   – Jesus’ teaching about prayer: “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20)
   There are myriad ways for a manifestation of the divine presence in our lives, and rarely are they very dramatic and unmistakable. Most often they escape our attention and are unnoticed.
   Remember what St. Paul said to the Athenian intellectuals on the Areopagus about the one God, quoting from their literature: “For ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’ as even some of your poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’” (Acts 17:28)

   “In him we live and move and have our being” means that we are radically inseparable from God, whether we know it or realize it or not.
   Every time we awaken to a new day is a gift, every good new thought and insight is an inspiration, every act of patient endurance is an empowerment.
   Do you really think that of yourself alone you’re so healthy, so smart, so strong, so attractive, so successful, so effective?
   Are you frustrated that you pray and sacrifice and that God seems indifferent and doesn’t respond?
   In many ways, we’re all like the tired and disillusioned disciples on the road to Emmaus. They were so caught up in themselves and their disappointments that, although the Lord was walking with them, they were blind to his presence.
   We’re really good at complaining and asking God why did this happen? why have you done this? why don’t you listen to me?
   The manifestations of the presence of God could be crashes of thunder, flashes of lightning, torrents of rain, earthquakes, and other such things—but usually this is more our imagination than God’s action.
   You exist! You were born! You still live! You know things! You’ve been to places! You have friends and people who love you!
   You, me, we are not alone. Our lives are not a series of random, meaningless advances and setbacks. We’re not wandering aimlessly in a wilderness. We’re travelers en route. We have a destiny and destination.
   Maybe you’ve recognized a manifestation of God in your life and maybe you haven’t.
   Just because you don’t recognize God walking with you doesn’t mean you’re walking alone.

3 October 2021

God Doesn’t Shout

Chapter 19 of the 1st book of Kings tells of Elijah’s encounter with God on the mountain:

There was a strong and violent wind rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the Lord—but the Lord was not in the wind; after the wind, an earthquake—but the Lord was not in the earthquake; after the earthquake, fire—but the Lord was not in the fire; after the fire, a light silent sound.

   When Elijah heard the light silent sound he knew he was in the presence of God.
   We may yearn to know the will of God, to know what God expects of us. We may yearn to hear his voice.
   The Bible tells of us of the experience of others, of how they perceived the will of God, of how they heard his voice.
   The lives of the saints are similar. We learn how they came to discern God’s will, how they heard God’s call.
   We may cry out in the depths of our hearts, “Lord, why did you allow this to happen? Lord, where are you leading me? Lord, what do you want of me?
   Can it be that God ignores our plea? that God doesn’t hear our cry? that God is indifferent to our plight?
   No!
   God always answers—and God often answers in ways we do not expect.
   If you’re expecting dramatic divine intervention in your life like the experience of St. Paul the Apostle on the road to Damascus, you may be waiting in vain. In fact, you may be missing or completely misunderstanding God’s way of communication. God may be speaking, but it is you who do not hear!
   When the people heard the crash of thunder and the flashes of lighting they “knew” that God was speaking to Moses.
   But Moses—and Elijah—knew better.

   Three special ways God speaks to us are through the created universe, the teachings of Jesus, and in the depths of our hearts.
   The problem is not that God is not talking to us. The problem lies with us, that we are often deaf, dumb, and stupid—we don’t see, hear, sense, feel, taste, discern, understand, or comprehend.
   Elijah in the depth of depression and despair, went into the desert to die—and yet he was summoned to stand before God on the mountain and hear his voice. At least he was not so far gone that he misconstrued the violence of nature as the voice of God. He listened for the light silent sound!
   The sonnet of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “How do I love thee?”, could also be a reflection about “How do I hear thee?”:

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

12 September 2021

Figuring Things Out

There are an awful lot of things that we can’t figure out, that just don’t make sense to us, and that we don’t really understand no matter how hard we try.
   As a matter of fact, we live our lives constantly surrounded by things we can’t figure out—and, oddly enough, that doesn’t seem to bother us at all.
   Just because we don’t know exactly how a cell phone works doesn’t stop us from using it all the time. On the other hand, it may be able to do more things than we realize, but if we have no desire to do those things we’re not bothered in the least because we don’t understand them.
   How many of us can really explain how a plane flies? Even though we may not know exactly how, it doesn’t stop us from taking flights. But, we do presume and trust that the pilot understands a lot more about it than we do.
   It’s like going to the doctor. When we’re sick or don’t feel well, we trust that the doctor will know better or find out what’s wrong and do something to help us. We don’t have to know precisely how it works, to benefit from a vaccination.
   Whether you’re going to an obstetrician or a local midwife, it involves an act of confidence and trust in the knowledge and decisions of the other.
   The hardest things to figure out aren’t matters of science, technology, mechanics, or biology. The hardest things to figure out are other people!
   How often we’re baffled by their decisions, reactions, and behavior. How often we think or even say, “I just can’t figure him/her out!”
   Because we often can’t figure the other persons out, we can unknowingly misunderstand them, misjudge them, or react to them inappropriately.
   And, it’s not just strangers. It could be your mother, father, wife, husband, child, sister, brother, neighbor, friend, colleague, counselor, minister, entertainer, or boss.

   When it comes to our faith and religious practices, there’s also a lot of things we can’t figure out, that just don’t make sense to us, and that we don’t really understand.
   As a matter of fact, we live our religious lives constantly surrounded by things that we can’t figure out—and oddly enough, that also doesn’t seem to bother us at all.
   Just because we don’t know enough history, philosophy, and theology to explain the origin, change, and development in religious matters, it doesn’t usually bother us in the least or stop us from practicing our religion or living lives of faith.
   When we join with others in religious observances, we may not be able to explain everything, but we do presume and trust that our religious leaders (be they priest, minister, rabbi, imam, or swami) understand a lot more about them than we do.
   In religious matters, as in many things, although we may not have all the answers we do trust and have confidence in our religious leaders and fellow believers.
   Of course, religious leaders, like all leaders, like all people, are less than perfect, don’t know everything, and can’t explain everything, even though we may trust them.
   We may be baffled by their decisions, reactions, and behavior. We may think or even say, “I just can’t figure him/her out!”
   If this is the way things are with other people, how much more it must be with God (the maker, the creator, the supreme being, the source of all life and love).
   We can’t figure God out, and so God can be unknowingly misunderstood, misjudged, or reacted to inappropriately also!
   Especially with God, it’s really not about figuring things out—it’s all about trust and love.

13 June 2021