Ten Signposts to Faith (Trust): A Reflection
1. The four Gospel resurrection narratives – the resurrection appearances. ‘God, however, raised him from the dead, and to that fact we are the witnesses.’ Acts 3:15. The tomb was empty and the Sanhedrin were unable to find the body of Jesus.
2. The Disciples believed they saw Jesus resurrected. This transformed their lives and changed them from frightened Disciples into Evangelists and Martyrs. They created the Church, the World’s greatest religion across the Globe and across time. ‘If this enterprise, this movement of theirs, is of human origin it will break up of its own accord; but if it does in fact come from God you will not only be unable to destroy them, but you might find yourselves fighting against God.’ Acts 5:38
3. The Miracle and Healing Gospel narratives and ‘Miracles’ that have happened since then, even today in our experience. ‘Remember the wonders he has done, his Miracles, the Judgements he spoke.’ Psalm 104:5
4. The Conversion of Paul (Acts 9:1-21), his remarkable life and his letters.
5. The lives of those with Faith, dedicated to God and others, the Saints in the past and the selfless, happy. unselfconscious, holy people we have met in our own lives, flowing with serenity and ‘the peace which passes all understanding’. ‘By their fruits you shall know them’ Matthew 7:16. ‘With so many witnesses in a great cloud on every side of us, we too, then, should throw off everything that hinders us.’ Hebrews 12:1
6. We Humans are wired to believe that life and events are not random but have a purpose. Events are not random, accidental. Our life has a meaning, beyond simply its existence. We search for understanding and meaning. Can Creation and our lives be simply a random product?
7. Faith gives us, uniquely, a positive interpretation of suffering and death. Without Christian Faith, these are simply enemies which defeat us.
8. The beauty of Creation both suggests a Creator and demonstrates, to a degree, the logic and order (including DNA) that flow from a designing mind, rather than randomness. ‘All these works of yours we see. We see that together they are very good, because it is you who see them in us and it was you who gave us the Spirit by which we see them and love you in them.’ St Augustine Confessions. ‘...because you made the Universe and it was only by your will that everything was made and exists.’ Revelation 4:11
9. Our deepest need is to love and be loved. The Christian Faith puts this at the centre of the two new commandments, understanding that the way to happiness and fulfilment and peace is self-giving, forgetting self, rather than pleasure and riches. ‘Give and there are gifts for you.’ Luke 6:38. Faith has the capacity to make us selfless. ‘..the reason he died for all was so that all living men should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised to life for them.’ 2 Corinthians 5:15. ‘If we don’t think about God, everything ends up flat, everything ends up about ‘me’ and my comfort. Life, the world, other people, all of these become unreal, they no longer matter, everything boils down to one thing: having…Those who run after nothing become nothing.’ Pope Francis
10. Our individual religious experience(s) may point to God. ‘In ecstasies and agonies his voice is unmistakable to those prepared to listen and look.’ Cardinal Basil Hume ‘We walk blindly, not knowing where we are, and whither God is leading us. Reason understands nothing of it…When God ordered Abraham to sacrifice his son to him…if Abraham had reasoned upon an order apparently so opposed to the law of nature...Abraham would have .. left the way of Faith…’ Fr Jean-Nicolas Grou SJ (1803)
Geoff Bignell
23.6.15
1. The four Gospel resurrection narratives – the resurrection appearances. ‘God, however, raised him from the dead, and to that fact we are the witnesses.’ Acts 3:15. The tomb was empty and the Sanhedrin were unable to find the body of Jesus.
2. The Disciples believed they saw Jesus resurrected. This transformed their lives and changed them from frightened Disciples into Evangelists and Martyrs. They created the Church, the World’s greatest religion across the Globe and across time. ‘If this enterprise, this movement of theirs, is of human origin it will break up of its own accord; but if it does in fact come from God you will not only be unable to destroy them, but you might find yourselves fighting against God.’ Acts 5:38
3. The Miracle and Healing Gospel narratives and ‘Miracles’ that have happened since then, even today in our experience. ‘Remember the wonders he has done, his Miracles, the Judgements he spoke.’ Psalm 104:5
4. The Conversion of Paul (Acts 9:1-21), his remarkable life and his letters.
5. The lives of those with Faith, dedicated to God and others, the Saints in the past and the selfless, happy. unselfconscious, holy people we have met in our own lives, flowing with serenity and ‘the peace which passes all understanding’. ‘By their fruits you shall know them’ Matthew 7:16. ‘With so many witnesses in a great cloud on every side of us, we too, then, should throw off everything that hinders us.’ Hebrews 12:1
6. We Humans are wired to believe that life and events are not random but have a purpose. Events are not random, accidental. Our life has a meaning, beyond simply its existence. We search for understanding and meaning. Can Creation and our lives be simply a random product?
7. Faith gives us, uniquely, a positive interpretation of suffering and death. Without Christian Faith, these are simply enemies which defeat us.
8. The beauty of Creation both suggests a Creator and demonstrates, to a degree, the logic and order (including DNA) that flow from a designing mind, rather than randomness. ‘All these works of yours we see. We see that together they are very good, because it is you who see them in us and it was you who gave us the Spirit by which we see them and love you in them.’ St Augustine Confessions. ‘...because you made the Universe and it was only by your will that everything was made and exists.’ Revelation 4:11
9. Our deepest need is to love and be loved. The Christian Faith puts this at the centre of the two new commandments, understanding that the way to happiness and fulfilment and peace is self-giving, forgetting self, rather than pleasure and riches. ‘Give and there are gifts for you.’ Luke 6:38. Faith has the capacity to make us selfless. ‘..the reason he died for all was so that all living men should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised to life for them.’ 2 Corinthians 5:15. ‘If we don’t think about God, everything ends up flat, everything ends up about ‘me’ and my comfort. Life, the world, other people, all of these become unreal, they no longer matter, everything boils down to one thing: having…Those who run after nothing become nothing.’ Pope Francis
10. Our individual religious experience(s) may point to God. ‘In ecstasies and agonies his voice is unmistakable to those prepared to listen and look.’ Cardinal Basil Hume ‘We walk blindly, not knowing where we are, and whither God is leading us. Reason understands nothing of it…When God ordered Abraham to sacrifice his son to him…if Abraham had reasoned upon an order apparently so opposed to the law of nature...Abraham would have .. left the way of Faith…’ Fr Jean-Nicolas Grou SJ (1803)
Geoff Bignell
23.6.15
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