"The Truth, the Goodness and the Beauty of This Faith is Utterly Overwhelming..."

Yet another outstanding post coming our way via Tod Worner, this time over at The Catholic Thing:

How do you put into words what can only be expressed in pure and overwhelming feeling?

By telling the story.

Is it any different for our Catholic Faith? If you think about it – I mean really think about it – the truth, the goodness and the beauty of this Faith is utterly overwhelming and initially comes to us via the story of the Bible, not some abstract argument. A God that could have been cold, calculating, and capricious like Zeus or any number of ancient, wicked gods, instead is a loving Creator who runs a risks of renegade creatures by granting us freewill.

He mourns the dislocation that we set into action, but tirelessly seeks to gather us back in his Fatherly embrace. Through rules that champion our dignity, lessons that correct our paths, and enduring hope that quenches our thirst for redemption in the midst of our brokenness, this God – this indescribable Father whose only Son becomes Man – when rightly considered should render us bereft of words. We should be too emotional to speak lest we literally break down and weep.

In becoming Catholic, did I grasp these truths? I’m not sure. Nor am I sure that I ever truly will. But I have moments of apprehension where grace alights and I get a glimpse – a sheer, sweet glimpse – of the God who refused to leave me behind. And where do I most experience those moments? In the stories.

I hear it when someone says, “Jesus loves you.” But I comprehend it when a suffering crucified Christ mutters, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”

I am listening when someone tells me, “God forgives you.” But I understand when the undeserving and desperately weeping prodigal son is gripped tighter by his even more emotional father.

I am receptive when someone warns, “Don’t sin.” But I am transformed by a Christ who gently calls executioners to account while sparing the adulteress with the loving, yet firm words, “Go and sin no more.”

At the end of G.K. Chesterton’s extraordinary biography of Charles Dickens, Chesterton didn’t convey his appreciation for the man and his message with bland superlatives. Instead he said this...

Go now and read the rest.  

Well worth your time.