We encounter the demand of giving or explaining reasons in our daily workspaces, family circles, and even in our personal lives. In a similar fashion, we also encounter certain deep emotional and spiritual questions in our day-to-day engagements. A certain level of faith questions and religious doubt may also come at once in our journey. How are we prepared to answer such faith questions?
In the Bible we see in the first letter of St. Peter that “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” (1 Peter 3:15). We are encouraged and instructed to share our reasons of faith, hope, and love with those who ask of us. Before we move further, we need to ask two pertinent questions here: a) Are we really prepared ourselves to give an answer for reasons of our faith, hope, and love? b) Do we really have the confidence to share what we believe or belong to? Mere intellectual preparations will not suffice us to share the divine mysteries; rather, it requires certain level of confidence gained from our life experiences too.
Sharing our reasons of faith, hope, and love has a personal and community dimension. When persons find the reasons less attractive or meaningful, they slowly slip away from practicing their faith, thus putting the entire community in a state of insecurity and self-doubt.
Any religious community that constantly cries out about their insecurity on matters of faith and morals, has already failed in giving reasons!
Sometimes they may even possess very solid intellectual history and backing, yet have failed to show courage and confidence in sharing it. The winter of faith and the dogmatic slumber, which we experience in various parts of the world have created an impression of fighting a losing battle among many religious leaders and their followers.
The Jesuit theologian Michael Paul Gallagher in his Free to Believe: Ten Steps to Faith proposes imagination as an equal partner in this search for faith and knowing its nature. The uniqueness of his imaginative a faith is its rooting in ‘heart’ and ‘imagination’ rather than ‘reason’ and ‘verification’ since he considers faith “as a non-rational and personal kind of truth” which does not mean it as irrational.
Therefore, sharing the faith, hope, and love in our familial and societal circles requires rational imagination demanded by the time and a creative boldness in living out faith in the public square. Rational imagination helps to articulate anew the age-old dogmas into concepts and models meaningful to the spiritual aspirations of the present generations without compromising the truth claims.
It can thus respectfully engage with the modern sensibilities and create a sense of reassurance and warmth among the faith followers. Such rational imagination can further evoke many and varied ways of living out the spiritual lives in an unwavering confidence, rowing into the deep waters of mystery.
