No Longer Strangers and Sojourners
You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow
citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the
foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the
capstone. Through him, the whole structure is held together and grows into a
temple sacred in the Lord. Ephesians
2:19-21
Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen
me? Blessed are those who have not seen
and have believed.” John 20:29
Piety
We too often forget that faith is a matter of questioning and struggle
before it becomes one of certitude and peace. You have to doubt and reject
everything else in order to believe firmly in Christ, and after you have begun
to believe, your faith itself must be tested and purified. Christianity is not
merely a set of foregone conclusions. Faith tends to be defeated by the burning
presence of God in mystery, and seeks refuge from him, flying to comfortable
social forms and safe convictions in which purification is no longer an inner
battle but a matter of outward gesture. (Thomas Merton)
Study
An interesting combination of thoughts is included in today’s
readings. First is the idea of a “capstone”
(or cornerstone or keystone – depending upon whom is translating John from the
ancient Aramaic or Greek).
The second concept is “doubt” as embodied in the pre-encounter persona
of Thomas. Maybe (just maybe) doubt is also
a cornerstone of the Christian experience.
Poor Thomas takes a bad rap for his doubts. He was certainly not alone. Think of the denying Peter warming his hands
at the Holy Thursday courtyard fire while soothing his troubled heart by
distancing himself from Jesus. Think of the “Dark Night of the Soul” poem
written by the 16th-century Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross. Think of the modern letters uncovered about
St. Teresa of Calcutta. She, too, was
deeply tormented about her faith and suffered periods of doubt about God.
Perhaps our studies will reveal that the only path to a strong faith is
one that passes through the forest of doubt. Fr. Merton reminds us that he is
not altogether unlike his namesake with this quote: “Let no one hope to find
in contemplation an escape from the conflict, from anguish or from doubt. On
the contrary, the deep inexpressible certitude of the contemplative experience
awakens a tragic anguish and opens many questions in the depths of the heart
like wounds that cannot stop bleeding.”
The very path we are traveling is unknowable and obscure. The first verse of St.
John’s poem is translated:
In an obscure night
Fevered with love's anxiety
(O hapless, happy plight!)
I went, none seeing me
Forth from my house, where all things quiet be
Action
Put your doubts to work to help you get back to faith. Do not be a stranger
to your doubts but pull them along on your journey.
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