An Adult Faith

An Adult faith does not follow the waves of fashion and the latest novelties.
Joseph Ratzinger--Pope Benedict XVI

I've been listening to something on EWTN radio today. The speaker is saying that when a person transitions from childhood to adulthood, their faith should go from an emotion-based faith to a rational-based faith. They often go through a stage of questioning, because they want to "prove" the tenants of their faith. This is where apologetics comes in. It is important for parents and religious ed teachers at this age to know why they believe what they believe.

This reliance on emotion-based faith made me think of the many adults led by many churches/belief systems that rely mainly or soley on an emotion as proof of faith or salvation. "Feeling" it, is believing it in these cases. If you have a dry period, you are suddenly afraid that you are "backsliding" and no longer believing.

An adult faith on the other hand, is a faith that knows the basis for its belief. That is not to say that emotion never plays a part in adult faith. We are sometimes blessed with spontaneous feelings of praise to God for His many gifts to us. But if one doesn't experience this, or other "positive" emotions, that is a cross that we sometimes have to bear. Saint John of the Cross called this "the dark night of the soul." Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta experienced this for the last half of her life.

Dr. Darryl Pokea says that

Many today, through the lens of ego perception, would like us to fantasize that Mother Theresa was in a state of spiritual ecstasy, high on God that made her immune to placing her self in situations among those living in agonizing poverty and suffering. There were no spiritual endorphins that lifted Mother Theresa away from compassionately feeling the suffering of those she was serving. She was not held up by any spiritual narcoticized state.

The Catholic Church stands alone among churches in recognizing the efficacy of suffering. We can each offer up our dry times and times of suffering to the Lord, uniting our suffering with His.

Becoming an adult in the faith can, and probably will, involve some suffering. But all is not lost. God is still there.