Dear Parish Family,
“To whom else shall we go? You have the message of eternal life”. Peter says these words to Jesus in a very conflicted context of offering his body and blood as the way to eternal life. Their temple and worship, beliefs that one could not partake of blood in any form, their purification rituals had no bearing on life after death. Every one of his hearers walked away grumbling that what Jesus was teaching was “intolerable.” Jesus then turns to his apostles and asks them: “Do you also want to leave?” Peter answers: “To whom else can we go?” But that’s more a statement of stoic resignation than an actual question.
His words function at two levels. On the surface, they express an unwanted humility and helplessness that sometimes beset us all: “I have no alternative! I’m so invested in this relationship that now I have no other options. I’m stuck with this!” That’s a humble place to stand and anyone who has ever given himself or herself over in an authentic commitment will eventually stand on that place, knowing that he or she no longer has another practical choice. These thoughts can nag us as we face the clergy abuse crisis in the Church too. But crisis moments can focus attention on a much deeper reality, namely, where can I find meaning if I cannot find it in faith in God? Some point in our life we might have asked the question: what would give meaning to my life?
Where can we go if we no longer have an explicit faith in God? A lot of places, it seems. The ideologies that challenge the faith in God and established religions, seem to offer alluring alternatives. If ‘immortality’ means creating a legacy, then fame, power and pleasure could create niches to mortal gods that excel in monumental feats. Poets, writers, artists, and artisans often have their own place to find meaning outside of explicit faith. For them, creativity and beauty can be ends in themselves. Art for art’s sake. Creativity itself can seem enough.
Though it appears that there are places to go outside of explicit faith where one can find deep meaning. But is this really so? Don’t we believe that true meaning can only be found in God? What about St. Augustine’s classic line? You have made us for yourself, Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. Can anything other than faith and God really quiet the restless fires within us?
Christian theology tells us that God is One, True, Good, and Beautiful. Every human endeavor that pursues goodness, beauty and truth is radiating the transcendental properties of God and working alongside God to bring life and order to the world. The artist and the architect, the engineer and the scientist, the parent and the sage and even when hedonists drink deeply of earthly pleasure, they are, all of them, whether they have explicit faith or not, acting in some faith because they are putting their trust in either the Oneness, Truth, Goodness, or Beauty of God.
The places that people go are not necessarily empty places, as is sometimes suggested by misguided spiritual literature, which are wrong and self-destructive. There are, of course, such places, spiritual dead-ends; but, more generally, as we can see simply by looking at the amount of positive energy, love, creativity, generosity, and honesty that still fill our world, those places where people are seeking God outside of explicit faith still has them meeting God.
Our Lord had, in the foregoing discourse, promised eternal life to his followers; the disciples fastened on that promise, and resolved to cleave to him, when others fastened on hard sayings, and forsook him. To whom can we go? He alone can give salvation by the forgiveness of sins. He alone can nourish our life time with his sacred body and blood. He alone guide us through committed ministers even when some betrayed trust and acted criminally. And this alone brings confidence, comfort, and joy, and bids fear and despondency flee away. It gains the only unwavering happiness in this world, and opens the way to the happiness of the next.
Fr. Tom Kunnel. C.O.