Saint John's Abbey

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Fr. Don's Daily Reflection - October 31, 2024

Photo by Cathy Lampert

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

We believers in God might underestimate the difficulty God presents for some of our friends. The beauty of the Rockies or of a sunrise is clear evidence for some; the birth of a baby seems an obvious ‘miracle’; the existence of selfless people we meet and who have done us so much good is persuasive for some. Saint Paul, too, thinks there is good evidence. "God's eternal power and divinity have become visible, recognized through the things He has made" (Romans 1:20). We're certainly justified in corroborating God's existence in our own way.

 

But others might not be convinced by the same things. There are emotional difficulties with believing, issues from our upbringing that make it hard to believe, devastating events that we can't quite get over. Too, people might have very different ways of expressing their belief or of describing God.

 

More familiarity with the Bible would show us a great deal of variety in how people think of God. God is always more than any one of us can say, always more than any one image. In the long run we point to God's existence and goodness better by how we live and act than by how we argue. Honing our arguments for God's existence is much less important than echoing God's love in what we do and say.

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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