If nobody had ever told you, would you believe that God exists? If there were no Church, no Bible, no Gospel, no people testifying, would you be a Christian?
[PAUSE]
Many people say that religion has been made up and the only reason that people are religious is because their parents, teachers and, indeed, people around them are religious. This is true to an extent. If all you hear are the teachings of a particular religion the more likely you are to believe that religion. There is something to be said for learning about what other religions say.
These religions exist because they give a language to the voice that we hear in us. They give words to the stirring of the spirit.
The trouble is, they might not be the right words.
[PAUSE]
St John writes his letter to us in order to help us to hear the truth. He does not begin with myths and legends. He does not start talking of fables or spiritual utterances. He starts with what he has personally experienced. He has seen God with his own eyes. He has touched Him, embraced Him, heard Him speak and teach. He has eaten with God, seen God asleep in the boat, watched God work miracles before his very eyes. He has seen God crucified, bleed and die. He has been given the care of God's mother.
And he is not the only one.
We are told that five hundred people see Jesus after His resurrection. They recognise that He died and they recognise that He lives.
Unlike other religions, Christianity has eye-witness testimony to its truth. The voice that we hear in our souls is given a language in the truth.
But we don't have eyes to see what St John sees. Our eyes are in the darkness of two thousand years of history.
[PAUSE]
We can't see God the Father: He stands outside Creation and our sinful little eyes are too separate from Him to stand His glory. We would burn up in an instant.
We can't see God the Son: His walk with us is too long ago for us to see.
We can't see God the Holy Ghost: He is like the wind and we can only see His effects.
And yet, God is Light. Our existence is like having the curtains closed on a sunny day. If we opened the curtains, the light is too much for us to bear. They protect us while we walk this earth. Somehow God has to reach us through the curtains. He gives us the eye-witnesses but He also gives us Himself in veiled form.
[PAUSE]
While He walks with us, God is veiled in our Human Nature. While He is ascended, He gives us Himself veiled in the sacraments. His invisible grace is rendered visible by the curtain of our small reality.
What the Church does is give a language to what we experience in ourselves through the Holy Scriptures, through teaching the Catholic Faith and through giving us God Himself in the sacraments. This is why we need to go to Church: we need to hear what our soul is saying in the language of the One True God Who has shown Himself to be part of our History not our myths and legends.
[PAUSE]
We see through the glass darkly. Once we have the language for it, we realise that what we glimpse through that dark glass is pure Love.
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