We Believe in What We Do Not See But Believe Because of What We Do
Second Sunday of Easter
Two of today’s Scripture readings make the same point: we believe in what we do not see and, thus, faith is not the result of sight. Christ in the Gospel says to Thomas and the other disciples who only recognized and believed in the Lord when they saw his wounds, Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed. Peter in the Second Reading exhorts us, Although you have not seen him you love him; even though you do not see him now yet believe in him, you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy.
And this corresponds to my own experience of faith and probably also yours. I have never seen God. I wasn’t there at the crucifixion. Nor was I with his disciples when the risen Christ appeared. I have not touched his wounds. I have not been taken up into heaven for a sneak preview. I have not been visited by angels or saints, at least not to my knowledge. Though I see not, I still believe in all of the above and everything else that pertains to the Christian faith. If, instead, I saw, I would not have faith but knowledge. I would not believe in what is beyond me. I would rather know what is before me.
To many, what I have described is sheer foolishness. We can only know, the scientifically-minded world tells us, what is incontrovertibly proven to be true and nothing more. Belief in what is not seen, then, is a mode of human thinking that is equal to guesswork and, therefore, not useful or even welcome in any way beyond the privacy of one’s own mind. Now, as it happens, I have found three scientists and a theologian, all from our Cathedral parish, who think otherwise, and they will present at our upcoming Cathedral Colloquium on the harmony between faith and science which begins on Monday. But I do think there is something right about the very common objection to faith that one needs evidence in order to believe.
Many people today say that if they could just have proof that Christ was a real person, who lived when and how the Bible says he did, and that he really was raised from the dead, then belief would come easy to them. As the great American Catholic author Flannery O’Connor has one of her characters memorably say of Christ raising the dead: It ain’t right I wasn’t there because if I had of been there I would have known.1 What Christ and Saint Peter tell us today, however, is that Christian faith will need to do without that kind of proof. We will have to believe without having been there to see for ourselves.
But does our faith need to be without evidence altogether? I don’t think so. If it does, then I guess I have to admit that I’m doing it wrong. Our First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles, however, seems to back me up. Here, we see the early Church in the wake of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit has come down upon the disciples and begun in them God’s new creation. As Saint Luke describes the manner of their living: They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers. They sold their possessions and held all things in common. The apostles worked signs and wonders. They prayed every day in the temple and broke bread in their homes. And, Luke concludes, every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
Those who joined the Christian community then had not known Jesus. They had not see him rise from the dead, heard his teaching, or seen his miracles. So what moved them to become Christians? It was, in short, the witness of the Church. There was something deeply attractive about the life that the early Christians shared that drew others — in droves! — to be baptized and have that life for themselves. Pope Saint Leo the Great wrote in the 5th century, What was visible in our Savior has passed over into his mysteries.2 That which was visible in Christ’s life remains visible within the mystery of his Church. And the witness of the Church is for many — and should ever be — the evidence that grounds belief. The world cannot see Christ, but the world can see the Church; and, by God’s design, seeing the Church, the world is called to come to believe in Christ to have life in his name.
In recent days, we have been reminded of the horrific ways in which the Church has failed to live up to her calling and has become, for many, the evidence that grounds their rejection of Christ and of the Church meant to reveal him to the world. The sins and crimes committed by the Church’s priests and other representatives have undermined the Church’s credibility and stunted her mission to bring the world to faith in Christ. And while much has been done to ensure, to the best of our ability and with God’s help, that the sins of the past will not be repeated, still more needs to be done — by all of us — for the Church to continue, with new vigor, the work of salvation the Lord established her to do. We, who belong to the Church, need to be the Church that draws others to Christ. We need to be the Church that is not the Church the world expects to find. We need to be the evidence that gives credence to the faith we profess. For the world will not see Christ, but the world will see us.
The road ahead will be difficult, but there is hope. With the report being released in the middle of Holy Week, it was reasonable to expect Mass attendance to take a hit. And yet on Easter Sunday this Cathedral was filled to the brim for the 11 o’clock Mass, and we saw more people at the other Masses than we did last year. And my brother priests around the Archdiocese all reported the same, in some places, even record crowds. We know we cannot take the credit, but only the Lord: the Lord who in his mercy remains with his Church always, who watches over her, who leads, guides, and protects her, and who will not cease to draw people to her, that she would draw them to him.
There are a few people I meet a year who live the Christian life in such a way who genuinely make me think, Gosh, all this might actually be true. Those people rouse in me the conviction that my belief is correct and that I need to let my faith continue reshape my life so that I, too, can be a witness to Christ before others. This Easter Day, may we allow ourselves to be fashioned by the Christ in whom we believe though we do not see, to become the reason the world can see and, thus, come to believe.
Homily preached April 15/16 at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen.
Flannery O’Connor, “A Good Man is Hard to Find.”
Leo the Great, Sermon 74, 2.