OCTOBER 8
We have only to believe. And the more threatening and irre-
ducible reality appears, the more firmly and desperately
must we believe. Then, little by little, we shall see the univer-
sal horror unbend, and then smile upon us, and then take
us in its more than human arms.
—TEILHARD DE CHARDINHow we long to believe in a Creator who loves and guides
us, who holds us—and our loved one—in continuing life
and possibility! It is almost too good to be true.
Do we turn away from belief because we don’t want to
fool ourselves with false hope? Are we afraid of believing
because we might be wrong?
Think of all the scientific truths that would never have
been discovered had someone not risked that a hypothesis
arrived at by intuition and speculation was worth experi-
menting with.
But how to test the hypothesis of belief? In our sadness
and despair, can we act and think as though faith is an ac-
curate mirror of truth; that there is, out there in the darkness,
a hand that reaches out to us in compassion and love?
It’s worth a try.
I will take the risk of believing and see where it leads me.