Finding faith

By William R. Jones

G.K. Chesterton once said, “Truth is sacred; and if you tell the truth too often nobody will believe it.” Nevertheless, these words I offer as an apologia for my faith, not an apology for it, for I know the author and finisher of my faith.

Since elementary school, I had been looking for behavior that people ought to practice like fair play or decency or morality. I went about carrying Diogenes’ lamp, if you will, searching for an honest human being. I was at an impasse.

Finally, college bound, I began to pursue something good by the wrong method, making no progress. The problem was that I had failed to practice myself the kind of behavior that I expected from other people. It gnawed at me. I no more had the strength or power to change than an animal to change its instincts. My self-conceit and stubbornness, which made me feel the need to change, also made it impossible for me to do so. What was I to do? Needless to say, a deep depression set in — a great confusion; why was I the way I was?

I recalled what an elementary Sunday School teacher in Munich had said to me. “Just ask Jesus to come into your heart, and He will.” Of course, in my inane exhaustive search for truth, if any similar simplicity had occurred to me before, it was summarily dismissed as ludicrous. One fine day in my 27th year, I sincerely spoke the words and was caught up in the third heaven. In an instant, a telepathic voice began speaking to my mind in a loving tone. “Come now, let us reason together: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” In that moment God had put a bit of Himself in me. My thinking now could succeed. I had finally evolved, a super-biological fact.

When people ask me about religion, that is, what do I believe, I keep it simple and say to them, “I believe Jesus is who He said He was.” I have that conviction by faith. And, when I’m asked what is faith, I quote the Bible book Hebrews 11:1. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” I ask, can you see the fact in this statement? There is much in this world that we cannot see, yet there is clear evidence of its existence. For example, in organic chemistry, I cannot see how a particular electron goes to join the atom of another molecule, but I know it must do so to form a viable yield.

I announce that I am now a Catholic Christian. If one is a Christian, one doesn’t have to believe that all the other religions are simply wrong through and through. We are free to think that all religions, even the odd and strange ones or the eccentric and peculiar ones, have in them at least some hint or trace of truth. I find that no matter what you are for or what you are against, you will find 50 million people opposing you, and perhaps, another 50 million people agreeing with you. We know the good that the Catholic Church has done and continues to do. “The church may have seen its duty imperfectly, for it is made up of fallible human beings, but when all is said it has been the one power through nearly 2,000 thousand years which has stood for peace, for brotherhood, for the cause of the poor and distressed.” Amen.

I have written in few words with plainness of speech, however, I know of a surety. Whom I have believed and I shall hold fast to the profession of my faith. Furthermore, I will go farther than the farthest. God will have all there is of me.

The author ([email protected]) published the novella “Beyond Harvard” and teaches English as a second language.