A homily: Reason, Faith, and the God  That Won't let go

By Kevin Craig

In April 1966, when I was sophomore at Xavier High School, a Jesuit high school in NYC, Time magazine asked on its cover “Is God Dead?” The intellectual world at that time had  confidence that modern science had destroyed all rational foundation for the religious worldview, the idea of God. Two great scientific revolutions contributed to this: the Copernican and the  Darwinian. Copernicus had shown that, contrary to the suggestion of the Bible, humanity was in no sense at the center of the cosmos. The earth was merely one planet orbiting the sun, which was one of billions of stars in a universe billions of light years across. Moreover, Darwin had demonstrated that it was not even necessary to postulate a God to explain the origin of life. Life, and the human species itself, was the outcome of essentially random mechanisms operating over the eons. The modern, secular viewpoint was that God was invented by humans as a kind of defense mechanism to help them cope with the rigors of survival. Humanity was not God’s creation, but an inexplicable byproduct of a random universe. And reason, the power of being able to think in a logical and rational manner, as distinct from experience or emotions, was the only path to truth.

Since the beginning of the human race, there has been a notion common to all human societies that “the gods” would somehow reward virtue and punish wrongdoing – be good to the gods and they will be goodto you. The secular view was that the yearnings for God, for a life after death, for justice in the universe had no basis in fact and human beings, in their ignorance, had mistaken this for nature, for reality. Ancient philosophers attempted to conceal their atheism, while modern philosophers broadcast their atheism from the house tops. So there it was - no God, no afterlife, no soul, no inherent justice in the universe – we were on our own – the universe was indeed random.

In the past century, scientists’ understanding of the nature of the universe and its origins has greatly broadened and deepened. In 1973, the physicist and cosmologist Brandon Carter postulated what he called “the anthropic principle” – the assertion that any life existing in a universe will impose conditions that significantly restrict the physical properties of that universe.  Suddenly the universe, and human life, did not look so random or accidental after all. In order to get life to appear in the universe billions of years after the universe began, everything had to be just right from the very start – everything from the values of the fundamental forces like electromagnetism and gravity to the relative masses of the subatomic particles. Far from being accidental, life appeared to be the goal toward which the entire universe from the very first
moment of its existence had been orchestrated, fine tuned.

Secular-minded scientists were not pleased with this view. Scientific discovery seemed to be taking us toward, rather than away from, the idea that there is a God – that the universe is the product of intelligence and aim, that in the absence of intelligent organization of a multitude of details vast and small, we would not exist. At the same time, researchers in medicine and psychology began to offer compelling evidence that “near-death or out-of-body experiences” were authentic, suggestive of the existence of a soul. Indeed, the 1970s was a period of intellectual turmoil. Since the days of Sigmund Freud, psychiatry and psychology had been bastions of atheism. Yet, beginning in the 1970s, evidence began to emerge showing a powerful correlation between religious commitment and overall mental health. Psychiatrist M. Scott Peck’s 1978 book The Road Less Traveled spurred a virtual revolution in thinking about therapy. He argued that mental health could not be separated from considerations of spiritual belief and morality. Today, there is even growing evidence that physical health, too, may have a spiritual dimension.

On a personal level, if there is no moral order to the universe, the incentives to good conduct, particularly in private life are much weakened. There is little to justify great self- sacrifice or deep personal commitment. Indeed, it is hard to feel or express love to its fullest extent. Even if one cares for others and thinks one cares greatly, one is inclined to be guided in the final analysis by one’s selfish wishes. Human beings exist in two worlds. The first is the world of utility, of means and ends, of measurement and of comparison – the I-It world. Teresa of Avila said that “comparing is the death of the spiritual life” as it leads to either discontent or arrogance, and away from God. The other is the world of encounter – the I-You world – where an I truly encounters a You and all measurement and comparison disappear. One might call this the “it’s not about me world.” The You, when truly encountered, is immeasurable and directs us
back to the immeasurable that is God. Yet the encounter with the You requires a certain vulnerability, a willingness to risk the unpredictable possibilities of encounter, and ultimately a willingness to sacrifice, to become that person for others. Every true encounter with the You points to the You of God. It has been said that it is hard to fall in love without thinking of God. Love is revealing to someone else that person’s own beauty, it is the responsibility of an I for a You. In embracing reason as an idol, one turns his/her back on everything immeasurable and with it the entire realm of I-You.

Today, the old materialistic paradigm, the fundamental modern framework of the random mechanistic universe, on which atheism is based, is coming apart at the seams. Parallel developments are found in psychology and medicine. All this does not suggest that anyone today can reason his or her way to faith in God. However, today, reason no longer stands in the way of faith in God, as it once clearly did. Science now reveals a universe, not more random and mechanical, but with unexpected layers of intricate order that signifies an almost unimaginably vast master design. Studies have shown that religious commitment is a vital component of basic mental health and that physical health has spiritual underpinnings. Through near-death studies, reason is now encountering evidence of a soul. Today there is no good reason for a person to embrace the illusion of atheism or agnosticism. The purely secular view of life is an empty one and the road to the spiritual view of life is the greatest of intellectual, and human, adventures. Faith, this belief in God without logical proof, is a gift of God. In all the world’s great religions, people seek God. All of us are longing, at the deepest level of our being, for something more, something beyond our comprehension, someone in whom fulfillment lies.

Christianity, however, introduces into the world an unexpected reversal: Christianity, through the life of Jesus Christ, reveals a God who seeks us, a God who loves us far more than we love ourselves. Indeed, faith for a Christian is a conviction that God loves us unconditionally as we are, not as we should be. The experience of God is a gift. When we wait with open hands and undefended heart, God comes and he approaches us from the inside outwards. When we look for God, we will find Him. For those who freely accept God’s unconditional love, their acceptance has enormous consequences. They cannot pay God off, for they are loved by God. God delights in forgiving; forgiveness is the completion of love. They cannot beg God in prayer, because they don’t beg those who love them. They cannot look on others without realizing the mystery of God’s unconditional love for them too – see God in all, seek God in all is the challenge to the human spirit.

There is no escape from social justice and respect for human dignity and integrity. We are loved by God who is with us in all our living, our joy, our toil, our suffering, and our dying. The cross, what Paul names as the absurdity of Christ crucified, is the symbol of God’s commitment to the rebel against all that is oppression and injustice – anywhere! Even this world of ours, with all its defects, cannot be seen as a place of exile and evil, but as God’s beloved creation, crying out to be improved and made just. Our lives cannot be imagined as a time of testing, for we are loved by God; our lives can only be a time of growing and maturing. With a divine judge, the wicked are somehow punished and the rest of us are instinctively secure. With an unconditionally loving God, this world is evidently not open to our moral calculations; the good get cancer. Without the order assured by a God who judges, we are insecure, left with only our trust in God, trusting God to love us – and no more. It is a vision of our world where God is not to be placated, because God is loving. It is a vision of the world where fear and anxiety before God yield to trust and love. Our behavior flows from that. It is a vision of life where there is no currying favor with God, easing vague anxieties. No payment of dues in return for divine good will. Not doing what God wants because it is God’s will – but because we both want it. A Christian’s commitment to moral behavior and full human living is a consequence of being loved by God, not a condition for being loved by God.

If our Christian faith gives priority to God’s unconditional love, then Christ’s incarnation (God’s becoming fully human) is the central act of God in human history. God’s becoming one of us because of love for us is what energizes and motivates Christ’s death and resurrection. Christ’s death and resurrection flow out of God’s commitment to the ordinariness of our human lives. In Christ, God became one of us and in love accepted all that involved, even to death, death on a cross. “Jesus loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end” (John 13:1) and the message of the cross applies to every person. Faith’s challenge is wide. Do I accept God’s love – for me? for others? for the wicked? for the world? forever? The invitation is there. Talk is easy. Have we committed ourselves to accepting what we talk about? It is time for thechallenge to be faced, for the invitation to be accepted.

It takes genuineness and courage to be open to our true destiny. If we could only confront ourselves with the awesome question: “Why do I not want more and more to live for God, for God first and before all, and for Jesus Christ?” ... all of us must answer in different ways. Whatever could hold one back in this, the most crucial quest in one’s life? It is not too late for any of us. We may need a time each day to find a way praying – listening to God – that opens us to a richer relationship with our God and a great life of loving care for those close to us and the many about us whose lives we could touch. Who I am and who others are because of me is the ultimate measure of my life. The moment is precious. The time is always now.