Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from you.”

To reason or not to reason, that is the question. Or, less poetically but more accurately, what is the place of reason in our lives? Most of us would give it some place. We all say things like: “Be reasonable.” Or: “Why did you do that?” We get suspicious of people who seem to leave reason out of everything. We complain that he or she acts on whims, apparently with no thought. But there are limits to reason! “Reason,” Pascal writes, “is really a poor thing if it cannot recognize its own limits.” Our craftiness has to be corrected at times by what looks like the unreasonableness or foolishness of God's ways. Our reason, after all, is only human.

The cross of Christ is certainly a complete challenge to reason: God overcomes sin and death, it tells us, by allowing the Son to be put to death. It makes no human sense. When Peter lowered his nets into the water at the Lord's command after an unsuccessful night of fishing, it wasn't reasonable (Luke 5:1-11). He knew that the night was the best time for fishing. But he puts his trust in One who is above and beyond human reason. The lesson for us is not to let reason put limitations on what God can do in answer to faith and trust. Every time we pray in difficult or desperate situations we affirm that God is not limited by what reason says is possible. “Reason is a poor thing if it cannot recognize its own limits.”

Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.

Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”

Reply to Fr. Don at: DTalafous@csbsju.edu

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