Belief is illusiveJanuary 17, 2022

Belief is illusive. This statement is also true of belief in the existence of God. Do I find faith in God difficult at time? This is a question that life often forces us to face. Most of us accept the existence of God even though we cannot see God. We are like the little boy who flew a kite so high that it flew into some low hanging clouds. A friend asked the boy how he knew the kite was still on the end of the string. The boy told the friend to tug on the string and feel the pull of the unseen kite. Our faith in an unseen God is like that. Though we cannot see God face-to-face, as God told Moses, we feel the tug at our hearts.

Over the past two years I have been working with the RCIA in St. Anselm’s Parish in Chesterland. The reward for my labors has been an increase in my belief in the presence of this unseen God of ours. As the Sundays roll on and the catechumen and candidates move through their study of the statements of our Creed, I am continually invited to see how their belief is growing. They are eager to understand the God whose face they see every week in one another and in all the faces of the parishioners they meet at Mass and at the social following it. I too feel the call to see God everywhere, yes, in the words spoken in Scriptures, in the homily, in the prayers of the Mass and I am especially touched by of the people waiting with me to receive the body and blood of Christ. These too are the faces of Jesus. They are light in the darkness of our world. These are the believers who are connected to the mystery that brings the grace of salvation into each heart. These are the holy ones whose tug at my heart strings make God more and more visible with each passing day.

And so we pray. Holy One, we believe that you are always with us, present in our lives, and in our hearts. We believe that we are incarnation-bearers, making you more and more present in our world. We ask for the grace and the courage to believe even in the times when you seem far away. Amen.

Sister Mary Ellen Brinovec