In tune with my last post, the truth is that this is a good life in a good world, all created by a good God. So far, so good, but what when you feel dark and desperate, when you are at the bottom of the barrel? What is the bottom line then? Is life always so bright?
As people of church, we can far too easily idealize hard truths and harsh realities, which remain difficult for the human individual to grasp and face. We can be seen as being distant, theorizing in pursuit of asking the right questions and finding the answers to life. But what about the tragic suffering of so many in our world, what about the simple drudgery faced by so many around us?
While watching a recent podcast, looking at the whole mess in Palestine and Israel, I was struck by two insightful lines made by one of the two, experienced and skillful presenters. On approaching the topic, he spontaneously confessed - I feel inadequate. On delving into the topic, he insightfully observed - It is not what you know that counts, but what you could have known.
Together these led me into considering a hermeneutics of suspicion, which is so me, the one ever the critical thinker. Yes, I feel inadequate - inadequate as a human being, a Christian, a religious, a priest - but that is is not the whole story and it does not stop there. Experience has assured me that my Christian life ethos, based on being perfect, in control and successful, is deeply flawed. So where do I turn? Of course, I look not to what I know, but to what I do not know.
I know so well that I do not have the answers to life. So I pursue the questions of life, which are found in the poor, the vulnerable, the suffering, in the midst of my own inadequacies and fragility. What should not be shows us what should be. The tragedy, the absurdity, the destruction of life shows us the way. And so, we are not distant when theologizing about a God in the midst of it all. That is the bottom line.
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