Why I Believe in God

Gospel
19 April 2009
Divine Mercy Sunday
Jn 20:19-31

On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.”

Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve,
was not with them when Jesus came.
So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”
But he said to them,
“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands
and put my finger into the nailmarks
and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

Now a week later his disciples were again inside
and Thomas was with them.
Jesus came, although the doors were locked,
and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands,
and bring your hand and put it into my side,
and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples
that are not written in this book.
But these are written that you may come to believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that through this belief you may have life in his name.

***

By Lester C. Yee

In the face of the evil that prevails in society, believing in God may only seem to be a form of escapism or lip service. Belief in God can implicitly mean believing that everything is determined by destiny, that it is God’s will or God’s plan that a person be poor. Religion can also be viewed as lip service, as tradition. People go to Church for the sake of following the rules or in the hope of getting something out of going to Church, like eternal life. Agustin Rodriguez PhD terms this as being “download Christians”, as people who do the bare minimum to be nominal Catholics, hoping that they can download eternal life by going to Church every Sunday.

But does it really make sense to believe in God? I honestly believe in God because there must be a God. Let me explain.

Each and very person has an inherent value, although we may not be open to the value of each and everyone. (We don’t feel love for every anonymous person we see on the streets, but these people we see on the streets have mothers, families, friends or other people who care for them in a way.) Suppose that you become open to the value of a person (your mother for instance). If your mother walks on a street, you don’t expect a person who doesn’t know your mother to love your mother the same way that you do. But that does not mean that your mother has no value. It just means that the passer-by is not open to the value of your mother.

But now that you intuit the value of your mother, you see that your mother bears a value, a value that is so valuable yet so fragile. In loving your mother, you tell her that it is good that she exists, and that in you, she will not die but live. But it is part of human reality that a person dies. Thus, your reason insists that there must be a God to have instilled this eternal value in your mother.