Contents: 1. I < You 3. Come, Let Me Show You the Bride 4. The Return of the Bridegroom
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My Faith: I am a Christian. It is not something I take on blind faith. How could it be? Christianity is not an abstract idea, a set of principles, or even a moral rubric to which one aligns behavior. It is a relationship with Jesus, the eternally begotten son of the Father who has, in turn, adopted us as His sons and daughters. To be satisfied with blind faith would be like submitting to an arranged marriage to someone you had never met. To be a Christian is to be able to say, as the Apostle John said in 1John 1:1, What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life…. The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of Christianity can be approached through reason since the author of all things is Reason (Logos), but to know as one is known (1Cor 13:12) is a journey of personal experience with the One who is our First Love. Christianity is empirical, but it is not “scientific” in the sense that it can be communicated from one believer to a nonbeliever; nor can its “results” (a life in Christ) be confirmed or denied as if it were some hypothesis to be tested by experimentation. Reason can be a handshake with transcendent realities; a personal experience and relationship is a kiss with the divine. To be a Christian is to change; it is to be conformed into the image of the Son (Rom 8:29). This occurs within the mystical Body of Christ which is his Church, the Bride of the Lamb. I am a Roman Catholic with one foot in the West (Catholicism & Protestantism) and one foot in the East (Orthodoxy). To be a follower of Jesus is to love as He first loved us even while we were yet sinners. So I identify with all of Christiandom, with all its failings, factions, and sinfulness. I am no better than the least of my brethren while at the same time I share in the fruit of righteousness of the saints. To position my self otherwise, to say that I am “spiritual” and not a part of institutional Christianity, is to set myself apart as self-righteous and in no need of the Body which is the instrument of God’s grace and transformation. So what then is the point of this web page and the associated pages you’ll find linked here? It is to share my joy of the truth, goodness, and beauty of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and His Church so that you might consider what I have shared and perhaps say, “Huh, I wonder if that life might be for me?”
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