{"id":6416,"date":"2014-05-03T20:04:01","date_gmt":"2014-05-03T19:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/?p=6416"},"modified":"2014-05-03T20:04:01","modified_gmt":"2014-05-03T19:04:01","slug":"easter-sunday-20-04-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/?p=6416","title":{"rendered":"Easter Sunday (20.04.14)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Easter Sunday (20.04.14)<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n

\u2018Seeing Is Believing\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

The above idiom was first recorded, in this form, in 1639. It implies that, “Only physical or concrete evidence is convincing”. It was the foundation of the doubting Apostle Thomas\u2019 stipulation if he were to believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (John 20:24-29).<\/p>\n

Jesus responded that blessed are those who have not seen but yet believe because faith is not limited to the visual! The idiom is a sophistry (a clever but false argument) that “seen evidence” can be easily and correctly interpreted, when in fact, interpretation may be difficult as well as inaccurate.<\/p>\n

True faith is based on what is gifted to the heart and soul not to the senses. As Pope Francis said recently:\u00a0\u201cTo know Jesus is a gift of the Father; it is He who enables us to know Jesus. It is a work of the Holy Spirit.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0(Homily at morning Mass 20 02 14)<\/p>\n

The Apostles, Peter and John, at the instigation of Mary of Magdala, arrived on Easter morning at the empty tomb where the Body of Jesus had been laid (John 20: 1-9). What they saw was an evidently used but now empty tomb. St. John tells us that, it was in that empty tomb that he came to believe. But in what did he believe? The Gospel text for this Easter Day, immediately continues:
\n\u201cFor they did not yet understand the Scripture<\/em>
\nthat he\u00a0<\/em>(Jesus)\u00a0had to rise from the dead.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

If we invert the idiom to read: \u201cBelieving is seeing\u201d, we might discover a more accurate understanding of St. John\u2019s reaction in the tomb on that first Easter morning. Belief is, after all, the slow unfolding of a mystery.<\/p>\n

John frequently described himself as \u2018the beloved disciple\u2019, the one who had stayed by the Cross of Jesus until he died. This alone helps us appreciate that John\u2019s growing belief in Jesus\u2019 Resurrection was strengthened by the very emptiness of that tomb. Yet that same emptiness initially prompted Mary of Magdala to suspect that Jesus\u2019 body had been stolen and others to be deeply perplexed.<\/p>\n

Inverting the idiom also points a way to understand how non-visual perception can be a gateway to individual faith growth. It is a graduated process of indeterminate length. For the majority of believers there is no physical interaction with the mystery of the Triune God Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The revelation of Jesus the Risen Christ to Saul, known to us as St. Paul, on the Damascus road is an exception (Acts 9: 1-19).<\/p>\n

The growth of faith in an individual is the gift of the Father through the Holy Spirit when an individual chooses to be willingly receptive. But the Father will not allow us to overwhelmed, submerged as it were, where the grace of revelation outpaces our chosen level of willingness to absorb the gift. Were this to happen, the delicate balance of \u2018free will\u2019 would be injured. For the same reason, God does not allow Evil to overpower our free will. We are continually, in our conscious moments, embracing either the Spirit of God or the spirit of evil. It is not always comfortable to live with this truth but it is vital that we do so.<\/p>\n

Peter and John\u2019s personal antecedent history, from before they became disciples of Jesus, would have both dissimilarities and similarities. Their common ground would have included their Jewishness, their style of food and geographical environment. Nevertheless their individuality would have remained uncompromised. The same is true for each of us, even for identical twins. The Father nourishes only individual, one-to-one relationships.<\/p>\n

When we consciously accept faith in Jesus Christ as a gift, the inverted idiom holds good – \u2018believing is seeing\u2019 – but not principally with the eyes. In other words, for faith to take root a person has to, as it were, step off the \u2018walkway\u2019 of the demonstrable, knowable, tangible and proven and willingly, trustingly embrace materially unsupported belief. While there may be signs, there is no material proof enabling us to truly love and commit our self to another, for life, in the Sacrament of Matrimony or in the Sacrament of Order or in religious profession.<\/p>\n

Jesus was constantly challenged by the Jewish religious leaders to show his miraculous power to their satisfaction. Matthew (27:40ff.) records the challenge put to the crucified Christ on Calvary:\u00a0\u201cIn the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking Him\u00a0<\/em>(Jesus)\u00a0and saying, “He saved others; He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel; let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him.\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Earlier in his mission Jesus\u2019 teaching on the Eucharist being truly his Body and Blood (John 6: 34-71) caused some followers to walk away. Jesus turned to the Twelve:\u00a0\u201cWhat about you, do you want to go away too?\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Peter\u2019s response was not just for the Twelve, it was for all believers when he said:\u00a0\u201cLord, to whom shall we go? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe: we have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Like Peter, we need to constantly confess our real belief in God through prayer and action (chosen lifestyle). \u00a0When we do so we enable God to infuse us with His holy Spirit. In this way God protects the free will with which he has endowed us. It is the exercise of our free choice, day-by-day and even minute-by-minute, that enables the Lord to be effective in our lives.<\/p>\n

The recent revision of the Mass texts has not settled well with all Catholics. However, one element of that revision is surely for the better. \u2018Credo\u2019 is now accurately translated as \u2018I believe\u2019 as opposed to the previous \u2018We believe\u2019. In saying \u2018I believe\u2019 we respect the varying levels of belief present in each individual irrespective of the size of a congregation. The simultaneous proclamation acknowledges that we are The Church. A Church composed of individuals at many different and continuously varying levels of faith.<\/p>\n

As Peter and John stood in the empty tomb on that Easter morning, John\u2019s Gospel states that \u2018he (John) believed\u201d – two people sharing the same experience, the same moment. We have some indication of John\u2019s response. We know nothing of Peter\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Our faith journey, though influenced by others, is utterly individual and private. It is known only to God, whether we are in St. Peter\u2019s Square with untold thousands of believers or alone in our private prayer space.<\/p>\n

This extract from St. Columbanus (AD 540-615) who, in his lifetime, founded monasteries throughout Europe may be of help to us as we, too, stand before the empty tomb on this Easter Day.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 seek the highest knowledge \u2026. by faith, which proceeds from purity and simplicity of heart. If you seek God by means of argument, he will be further from you than he was before; if you seek by faith, wisdom will be in her proper place at the gateway to knowledge, and you will see God there, at least in part. Wisdom is in a certain sense attained when you believe in the invisible without first demanding to understand it. God must be believed in as he is, that is, as being invisible; even though he can be partly seen by a pure heart.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Easter Sunday (20.04.14) \u2018Seeing Is Believing\u2019 The above idiom was first recorded, in this form, in 1639. It implies that, “Only physical or concrete evidence is convincing”. It was the foundation of the doubting Apostle Thomas\u2019 stipulation if he were … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archdiocese-of-liverpool"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6416"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6417,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6416\/revisions\/6417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}