Faith and Reason

Autumn, a “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, a season that fills all fruit with ripeness to the core,” in the words of John Keats, has arrived. Like the summer which had seen its share of activities; from the busy bees in the blooming flowers to the culminating fruits, our Church too had a summer full of fruitful activities. And now in this season it is time for the fruits to ripen; the time to swell and fill our hearts and minds with the knowledge and wisdom of God.

The world is advancing technologically everyday and with the conglomeration of advancements, technology has certainly changed the way we live and made our life more comfortable. When we think about technology there is an inevitable reference to Science, and Science, as we all know, is a product of a God given gift - the “Mind” which has the ability to think and reason. Reason has played a major role in shaping the world to what it is today but there is another factor which has played a monumental role in shaping humanity – Faith, the Christian faith.

The difference is that Science transforms the way a person live but Christianity transforms the person itself. The English writer, G.K. Chesterton used the analogy of a painter painting the portrait of a sitter.

“It would not matter if he tore up twenty portraits. But it would matter if he looked up twenty times, and each time saw a new person sitting placidly for his portrait.”

The Christian’s ideal - Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and will be the same forever hence we can depend and put our faith in Him in every season. We have failed in our attempts to understand Him and to be like Him but in a way our old failures are fruitful for our ideal is still the same. On the contrary the failures of all the attempts to imitate an ever changing ideal are fruitless.

Lets make a conscious effort to learn how faith and reason can be reconciled and also be warned of the dangers in the misuse of both. Lets spark an interest in ourselves and help one another towards believing through the mind with all our heart and reasoning through the heart with their mind and explore the endless wonders of God’s world.