The Experience of Faith
May 24, 2023
Fr John Riccardo
One of the greatest gifts I have in life is introducing friends of mine to one another. Someone once said, rather provocatively, that “Friendship is like the 8th sacrament.” This person is a visible sign of an invisible reality, namely, God’s faithful and generous love and kindness. Perhaps because the Lord knows how much help I need to be the man He has called me to be, He has brought into my life extraordinary friends, all of whom I treasure. Some of those friends are on the other side of the veil now, with the Lord, or on their way. Others are only loosely called friends, as I’ve never actually met them; they’re authors that I have come to know through their various works. Much like I love to introduce friends of mine to one another, I also love to introduce people to authors who have changed my life. In fact, I think it is one of the greatest blessings to be able to steer people to writers who can help us grow in our relationship with the greatest of friends: Jesus.
One of those authors is Fr. Wilfred Stinissen. Stinissen was a Carmelite priest from Belgium, perhaps best known for his rich little book called Into Your Hands, Father, a kind of spiritual commentary on the Prayer of Abandonment by St. Charles de Foucald. However, it is Stinissen’s book on the Holy Spirit, The Holy Spirit, Fire of Divine Love, that is on my mind this week, with Pentecost right around the corner now. If you’re looking for some reading for the summer, and perhaps especially on the Holy Spirit, without whom nothing happens, either in the Church or in our own personal lives, this would be well worth picking up. Here’s a little snippet I have been reflecting on personally the past few days. I pray it will help to stoke the fires in our hearts as we draw near to this grand Solemnity on Sunday.
“Christianity is a religion of revelation. We believe that God has revealed himself, that is, that he has entered into our reality. He has not only come with a teaching, with an explanation of reality, of a moral. He has let himself be known. It is obvious that this is something we ought to be able to experience.
“Jesus has never said that our life should be a desert journey. If we understand the Christian life in this way, it should not surprise us that many turn their backs on the Church and Christianity and just go on to other traditions that promise peace, joy, and a full life. This is a reaction, not against Christianity, but against a type of Christianity that has lost its authenticity.
“Jesus promises peace, joy and life to all who follow him. Peace and joy are things we experience and feel. Can a joy of which we are in no way conscious or able to experience be real joy?
“Those who come to Jesus with their troubles hear that he will give them relief and rest (Mt 11:28). What kind of relief is it that cannot be felt?
“But many other things promised and described in the New Testament should also normally be regarded as things we can experience. For example, the streams of living water of which Jesus speaks (Jn 7:38) or the fact that he who is in Christ is a new creation, as Saint Paul writes (2 Cor 5:17). Can we be a new creation and not eventually have some experience of it?
“We have become accustomed to interpreting these passages in a minimalistic way, as though they were about things we must accept in naked faith, but that we cannot experience. There is no reason to give these passages such a strange and artificial interpretation.
“From where does this interpretation come? Perhaps from the fact that many of us do not experience this peace, joy, and relief. To quiet our conscience, we rationalize the actual situation. We make a virtue of negativity. Instead of honestly admitting that something is missing in our life, we say that the non-feeling faith we have is normal.”
Come, Holy Spirit! Warm our hearts and minds with the experience of the Father’s love and of the peace and rest that Jesus promises to those who come to Him!