Standing Firm

April 4th, 2011 Posted in writing

In chapter 9 of St. John’s gospel, Jesus and his disciples come upon a beggar who’d been blind from birth, an object of pity and perhaps scorn for his whole life. But by the end of the chapter, this man had found the courage to confront the religious leaders of his community and chastise them for their own blindness.

With his sight restored by Jesus, he had found faith — not a faith based on sophisticated reasoning or years of studying the scriptures but on knowing what he had been, what he was now, and who had made it all happen.

St. Ignatius Loyola wrote that it’s not as essential to know many things (though he himself had been educated at the best university of his day) as it is to have a deep and heartfelt understanding of the truth. That’s what this man had.

What things in our lives and faith do we know so deeply from our own experience that we can stand on them no matter what anyone else says?

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