Keeping it real

I really enjoyed asking the congregation this past weekend to answer the question, “why do you believe in Jesus?” It was good for me and others to hear the profound answers of a few, brave people. But, the best part was getting everyone thinking about the answer. It is such a basic question that many of us haven’t really considered all that much. It can be tough to answer! I was reminded yesterday that a parish family asked me that question a few weeks ago when they had me for dinner. Grateful to them for putting that thought in my head for homily material!

People told me during the weekend that they appreciated the question and that it got them thinking. Most of us would say that we believe in Jesus because of our parents. They at least got us started in faith. But we probably thought the question meant, why do we believe in Jesus now? Faith is faith but there’s a difference between faith as a child and faith as an adult. I guess we would call it a progression in faith. Everything does seem to change when we make it our own faith and not our parents’ faith. So, that might be what the question was getting at - what has made you choose to believe in Jesus?

At the children’s Mass this past Sunday, I asked them, “what ways do you show that you believe in Jesus?” They answered prayer, worship, love, forgiveness, etc. All excellent responses from the little ones! We’ve all been doing these things since we were little. We’ve probably wondered at some point as adults why we do them. In my opinion, when we get answers from the Church to our why questions is when our faith becomes real. It is most enjoyable and most fruitful to be real about our all-important faith in the Son of God.