Faith begins with the deepest longing of the human heart.
BY PAT MARRIN
June 26 2023
A serious scholar of religion, in the freedom of his retirement, was trying to find a path to the mystery at the heart of the human quest for meaning. He tried to distinguish what is original from later developments, cutting through the layers of reflection that produced theology and then doctrine, hoping to discover God. His was an approach typical of the search for the historical Jesus behind and beneath the development of the Christ of faith and the organized church.
Whether this is achievable or not – and faith requires accepting the whole continuum – this original inspiration remains the profound goal we all hope to experience for ourselves. Faith begins with the deepest longing of the human heart. We seek the very source of our existence. We want to know who created us. We cry out: “Whoever you are, I want to know you, my God.”
This intimate connection was for Jesus the heart of the “Our Father.” The prayer he taught his disciples was first his own inner conversation with his Abba. And before that, going back to his childhood, it was the most familiar prayer of all, the Sh’ma, said daily by all Jews: “Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul and all your strength” (Deut 6:4 ff). And to this was commonly added, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19:18).
