Category: Classics

Every Easter we ponder the mystery of the Christ, the astonishing news of a dead man apparently resurrected, and must face the question every Christian faces at some point in their lives.  What do we believe?  What do you believe? 

It’s somewhat fashionable among elite and scholarly circles these days to claim a certain type of atheism, an intellectually derived claim that God is unimportant, indeed irrelevant to our human existence.  In fact, with breathless bravado, we are told that God is not simply irrelevant, he is non-existent.  What do you believe?  Our own spiritual belief system has to start here, for without a belief in God, why bother with a belief in anything else?

Now this is when most theologians will launch into various intellectual arguments for the existence of God, and to a certain degree, these discussions are interesting and fruitful.  At another level, however, they are less than optimal, for it is far too easy to fall into the trap of trying to use scientific methods and logical syllogisms to prove that God exists.  The stark truth of the matter is that you will never get to a convincing proof of the existence of God by using your head.  You need faith.

Now before you tune out because of that vague word, faith, allow me to define this term in a perhaps unusual way.  First, what faith is not.  Faith is not the same thing as belief, or adhering to some dogma, or obeying some command from the pulpit.  Faith has nothing to do with the Pope or even for that matter the Catholic Church.  Belief, dogma, the Pope, and the Church are all responses to faith – they are dependent on faith.  They follow faith.  So what is faith?  Faith, brothers and sisters, is simply accepting what you already know to be true.

So, what do you know to be true?  Let me suggest four very unscientific concepts that I bet you know very intimately and from deep within.  The first is beauty.  Beauty is hard to define, but we can try.  It’s the combination of qualities that make something pleasing and impressive to look at, listen to, touch, smell, or taste.  Beauty is soothing to the soul and a delight to experience.  Each of us knows beauty when we see it, don’t we?  You know beauty.

The second concept is goodness.  Goodness embodies virtue and kindness, high qualities that attract us and impress us.  Someone who is good is always in high demand, for goodness is like a light shining in the darkness.  It’s hard to measure goodness scientifically, isn’t it?  But just like beauty, we know it when we see it, know it when we encounter it.

The third concept is truth.  As human beings, we all seem to have a very well-tuned sense of truth, an almost intuitive appreciation for the reality of things.  Some think it is hard-wired into our psyches, this innate sense of right and wrong, of honesty and falsehood.  A good measure of the truth of something is how our gut reacts when we hear a claim.  Falsehood can confuse us momentarily, either due to the skill of the liar, or the clever way it misleads us.  But in the end, our gut will tell us whether it is true or not.

So let’s pause a moment.  I said that faith is simply accepting what you already know to be true.  You know beauty.  You know goodness.  You know truth itself.  Well guess what?  If you know beauty, goodness, and truth, you know God.  Because beauty, goodness, and truth define who God is.  How do I know this?  Because beauty, goodness, and truth are the lures, the bait, that God tosses out to lead us all to him.  God gives us a beautiful creation, with sunsets and roses and the smell of baking bread.  We’re attracted.  Then we explore some more and we see that the world has good and bad in it, and we are drawn to the good, to the virtuous, to the people who exhibit this quality.  You all know at least one person like that, right?  I hope so!  And when your senses are full of beauty and your heart is impressed by goodness, only then do you engage the brain and seek the ever-present truth.  The search for truth is the lifelong journey we call the spiritual path.

Now to the fourth concept (for those who were counting and wondered why I stopped).  You see the fourth concept that you know to be true is simply the combination of beauty, goodness and truth.  We have a word for it – love.  In the end, it’s simple.  If you believe in beauty, goodness, and truth, you certainly believe in love.  And if you believe in love, you believe in God.  Because St. John, in his amazingly profound insight, said it simply and perfectly.  God is love.  Love is God.

If you believe in love, then you believe in God.  You have faith.  You are simply accepting what you already know to be true.  How does that feel?  Isn’t it great to have faith?  Isn’t it great to know that you’ve had it all along? 

Today is Easter.  Today Jesus shows us the final truth, the final expression of God’s beauty, goodness, and love.  Jesus shows us that death, our greatest fear, is not the end, but somehow the beginning of something profoundly exciting and new.  It’s available to all of us who have faith.  I guess that’s all of us!  You already know it to be true.  You know that this world can’t be the end of everything; it’s just not possible.  Our gut doesn’t buy it.

One last question.  Do you ever get tired of beauty, goodness, and truth?  Do you ever think, oh gosh, if I see one more beautiful flower or hear one more moving piece of music, or learn one more truth about the world, I’ll just have to go hide?  I don’t think so.  Our whole life is a day to day search for more beauty, goodness, and truth.  Take a guess what heaven is all about.  For some strange reason, I don’t think we’ll be bored when we get there.  How could we?  Beauty, goodness, truth, love, the very essence of who God is, will permeate heaven.

So the next time someone tells you, “I don’t believe in God” ask them, “Oh?  So you don’t believe in love?  Or beauty?  Or truth? Or goodness?  What a sad and frightening world this must be for you!”  Then tell them some good news…whether or not you believe in God, God most certainly believes in you.  And he’s dangling this bait…

While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. (Luke 2:6-7)

Why Bethlehem?  We take this beautiful story quite for granted.  But have you ever really thought, “Why Bethlehem?”

One of my little fantasies is that Luke the evangelist spent some quality time with Mary before he wrote his gospel.  It’s possible – most historians would agree that Mary was probably young, no more than 16, when Jesus was born.  If Luke wrote his gospel in the 70’s, that would make Mary an elderly lady, maybe early 80’s, but still conceivable.  There are so many wonderful details in his narrative: the trip to Bethlehem, the star, the angels, the shepherds, the manger.  I can just hear Luke asking Mary this question, “Why did you go to Bethlehem?  You’re from Nazareth – why did you go to Bethlehem?”  Mary replies, “Oh, it was some government thing – Joseph said we had to go.”  So Luke gives us this census idea, which sounds good, but there is no historical evidence that it ever happened as Luke describes it.

 But wait a minute.  Wasn’t there a prophecy?  Yes, the book of Micah, which says: “But you, Bethlehem, too small to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel…” (Mi 5:1)  So did Mary and Joseph go to Bethlehem to fulfill the prophecy?  Hmm, seems a bit implausible.  You can hear Joseph, “Mary, I was reading Micah.  We’re in the wrong place!  We have to go to Bethlehem!”  Mary replies, “Are you nuts?”  So whether a census, or “some government thing,” let’s distill it down to a likely reality: they went to Bethlehem because they had to go.  Why else would a  woman in her eighth month of pregnancy travel?  This is totally outside of Mary’s comfort zone – and she was already facing terrible uncertainty about this child she was carrying.  She is young, most certainly frightened for her child’s safety, and uncomfortable physically.  Mary and Joseph are not in control here.

So why would God do this to them?  Ahh, it’s not God doing this, it’s life.  Life has a knack of taking us out of our comfort zone, in small ways and big ways.  Life is natural disasters.  Life is slipping on a step and breaking an arm.  Life is a lost job.  Life is a serious illness.  Life is the loss of a spouse.  Life is a whole sequence of challenges and sufferings and questions.  Life is having to go to Bethlehem when you’re ready to give birth.  Life is finding no place to stay, the 5-star Hilton filled up, the 1-star barn a welcome sight.  Life can be tough.

But now, as we look just a little bit closer at Luke’s gospel, the theology, the deeper meaning is made apparent.  In the midst of this out-of-control experience, the Bethlehem valley in Mary’s life, Christ breaks through!  Literally, fundamentally, Christ breaks through!  A healthy baby boy is born.  Is there anything more joyful than holding an infant in the first moments of life?  Christ breaks through.

 Isn’t that true for us too?  God allows life to happen because it seems that sometimes we need to wake up.  We have a hard time listening to God when things are going great.  When things get tough, when we are no longer in control, God’s invitation to us for a relationship takes on added clarity and power.  And when things are darkest on our journey – if we allow it to happen – Christ breaks through!  And resurrection happens.

We call this cycle of dying and rising made holy the Paschal Mystery.  It seems that something needs to die in order for something new to be born.  Life is an endless cycle of these moments of opportunity, these little deaths.  Jesus demonstrates through his life how to face these deaths – with humility, prayer, patience, and forgiveness.  He never seeks scapegoats or plays the victim.  He accepts the death, trusts in the Father, and is resurrected. 

 Why Bethlehem?  From the moment of birth, Jesus was engaged in the Paschal Mystery, foreshadowing his life of ministry.  From the moment of birth, Luke shows us that the cycle was true for the Holy Family just as it is true for us.  It all leads to the cross.  There is no other way.  The Good News is that Jesus will accompany us on the journey if we let him break through.  With his help, we can deal with anything, because we know it ends in resurrection.

So don’t fear Bethlehem.  When our ultimate Bethlehem occurs on our death bed, and we let Jesus break through, you can bet angels will sing Hosanna for us too.