The Catholic Parish of
Saint John Henry Newman

 Covering most of East Leeds

Faith And Truth.

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There is a very fine dividing line between whether something actually happened and whether it is true. For instance we cannot identify to the second or the day that Christ was born, December 25th is almost certainly not his actual birthday, yet we know that he was born and that shouldn’t stop us from celebrating his birth every Christmas. From the historical distance it cannot be proved or disproved that Jesus actually spoke each word recorded and attributed to him, but we know his teachings to be true.

We cannot make factual calculations on falling in love and yet we know that all the time and all over the world people are falling in love with each other, sometimes without knowing why they are so attracted to each other. The greatest truths cannot be distilled onto paper, the greatest truths and deep feeling we have for one another comes from the heart, they cannot be taught, they have to be experienced and felt. As Catholics we know that this is the bedrock of our Christian faith.

Politicians are always appearing on our television screens and asking us to put our faith in them and their policies, but do they always tell us the truth? Whenever we fly off to exotic places on our holidays, we have to put our faith and trust in the skills of the pilot, whom we have never met and the ground crew who service the aircraft before take-off, but do we really know that all will be well until we reach our cruising altitude of 30,000 ft? I remember that some time ago, I accidentally shredded one of my stories before I had typed it into my computer and showing remarkable faith in me, my wife said, “Well couldn't you just stick them back together again?” The truth on this occasion was unfortunately not!

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1)

“Fear knocked at the door, Faith answered it, but no one was there.”


(Could I point out that Fr. Solomon’s knee injury was not caused by his swimming with crocodiles....Ken.)



Published Sun 8th Dec 2013 17:12:58

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