CREDO IN UNUM DEUM — AT
WAL-MART
I stopped at WAL-MART (Route 61) this past Monday evening on
my way back to Girardville from New Philadelphia, where I have
a monthly Mass (last Monday of the month).
I was kind of tired and didn’t really feel like traipsing
around WAL-MART, but I needed a few items and figured I’d
better take advantage of the opportunity.
As it turned out, I’m glad I did.
Reason: While I was pushing my cart down an aisle, a boy
came up to me and asked, “Are you a priest?” I said,
“Yes, I am.” He said, “Do you mind if I ask you
a question?” I said, “Go right ahead.” He said,
“Well, like, you’re a priest, so I guess you believe
in God, don’t you?” I said, “Yes, I do believe
in God.” He said,
“Could I ask you why you believe in God?”
Let me pause here before I tell you how I responded. First of
all, the boy appeared to be about twelve years old --- maybe
eleven, maybe thirteen. There did not seem to be anyone accompanying
him, although I suspect that there must have been someone with
him. He was too young to be there on his own. He probably just
separated himself from his parents in order to speak with me.
The boy’s manners were exemplary. He was respectful and
courteous. There was nothing about his demeanor that made me
think that he was just jazzing me or that he had come up to speak
to me as some sort of prank. The thought occurred that he might
have been doing some school project, but I don’t think he
would be doing a school project in the latter part of July.
I can only conclude that he was really and truly curious as to
why I believed in God.
So, without asking him why he was asking me, I simply answered
his question, being fully aware that I had to pack a lot of information
into a little piece of time but, at the same time, not pack too
much into too little!
For better or for worse,
here is a summary of what I said to him:
The universe is the sum total of every atom and sub-atomic particle
that exists. It is all of the matter and all of the energy that
exists. Scientists tell us that the universe is about 17 billion
years old. That’s a ballpark figure, but we’ll accept
it now as fact. If, later on, we find it is older or younger
than that, no problem; we can make the adjustment. The point
is that the universe, although very old, DID have a beginning.
Something caused it to exist. Everything that exists has or
had some cause that is responsible for its existence. Every
cause was the effect of a prior cause.
Logic tells us that nothing comes from nothing. If you take
nothing and let it sit around for ten billion years and then
come back to check up on it, you will find that you have nothing
--- the exact same nothing!
The universe could not have come from nothing. It had to come
from something. The something that it came from might possibly have come from something else that came from something
else. But, eventually, we must
come to a “something else” that did not come from anything
else.
I paused and said to the boy, “Do you understand what I
mean when I say ‘the Uncaused Cause’”? He shook
his head and said, “No”. I said, “Do you understand
when I say ‘cause and effect’”? He said, “Yes”.
I said, “Do you understand that every cause is an effect
of some previous cause?” He said, “Yes”. I said,
“Well, what I want to tell you is that there is one cause
and only one cause that is not an effect of any other cause.
We call that particular Cause ‘the Uncaused Cause’”.
I said, “Do you understand that?” He said, “Yes”.
“Well” I said “that’s good because what
I want you to know is that ‘the Uncaused Cause’ is
what we’re talking about when we say ‘God’. Does
that make sense to you?” He said, “Yeah! Oh, yeah!”
Then he said, “Thank you” and I said, “You’re
welcome” and he walked away. And that was that. I continued
shopping. From the sublime to the cat litter. Story of my life.
Reflecting on it later on, I thought: There is a great variety
of ways to respond to the question as to why we believe in God
(i.e. why we believe that He exists and is to be worshipped).
One of these ways is the way of human reason. One of the great
advantages of being a Catholic is that we believe in the reliability
of human reason. Unlike Martin Luther, we do not believe that
“reason is a whore!” We believe that gratiam supponit
natura (nature underlies grace). In fact, it is a defined dogma
of the Catholic Church (cf. First Vatican Council) that the existence
of God can be known with certainty by the light of human reason
— even without supernatural intervention.
Although we Catholics believe in the Bible, we do not involve
ourselves in circular reasoning — trying to prove the existence
of God by quoting from the Bible and then trying to prove the
reliability of the Bible by asserting that it is the Word of
God.
May God bless that boy and all others of his generation. They
are facing some tough challenges. It is not a God-friendly world
out there anymore! These are the days of the faithful remnant.
We wait for help from on high.
|
Saturday, 01
August
