Year of Faith

Have you ever tried digging a hole to China? Okay, that’s a little ridiculous. Maybe just a hole to the center of the Earth. When I was a kid I really believed that I could dig my way down into the depths of the world. I had no concept of distance, the density of rock, or even the fact that pressure would have smushed me if I had gotten close.

It was all fun and games when I was a kid. I could just dig and dig and dig.

But one day I stopped digging. I found other things that fascinated me and kept me busy. Digging just didn’t seem as fun anymore. At some point I realized that I wasn’t ever going to be able to fulfill my dream of digging through the center of the Earth. Once a powerful driving force of my daily play activities, this digging routine slowly faded away into a forgotten childhood dream. Goodbye yellow Caterpillar dump truck.

Dreams That Will Never Come True

We all have dreams and because we have dreams we believe in some things that will never come true. Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, creepy monsters under the bed – none of them are real. Seriously, who wants a jovial dude in a red track suit climbing in their house late at night? Not me.

We go through this process throughout our entire lives where things we believed in or people that we trusted fail us. We can become cynical and waste our lives feeling numb and alone because the answers to our questions seem unfulfilled. What little faith we had in an idea, or others, or ourselves will ultimately never fulfill us and we will eventually die. Are we destined to a horribly hopeless life?

No, because this is not True. This is not the reality of creation.

Rediscovering Our Christian Faith

We believe in a God who made everything and who made us like Himself to love like Him. We believe that God came down to be with us, to take on our existence, and to show us His love. That love consisted of showing us how to love others, even showing his love for us by dying for us. We believe that death could not overcome that love. We believe that God rose from the dead. We believe He is with us forever and makes our life fulfilling. We believe that God calls us on a mission to share Him with everyone we meet so that they may know the fullness of His love. We believe that when we die we will rise with Him and be with Him forever in Heaven.

Today begins the Year of Faith, a time that Pope Benedict XVI has called each of us to not only rediscover the truths of our Faith, but in a deeper way the Who of our Faith in Jesus Christ and to ask why He is so Good and True.

I may not be able to dig to the center of the Earth, but I know that the center of my existence is Jesus Christ who offers a much bigger adventure for me than any I could ever imagine. I pray you’re open to that adventure of Faith as well.

To learn more about the Year of Faith, check out the Year of Faith website from the Vatican.