Musings in Lent 2024

Faith in our Creator God.

Given my Imperial College training in civil engineering, on the evidence of  our brain and ear, I have to accept – and as it has enhanced my life immensely, gladly accept – that there is a magnificent intellect guiding evolution these last 13.7 billion years.

With its roughly 171 billion cells - including about 86 billion neurons and 85 billion other cells called glial cells, supporting the neurons – our brain enables us to be human. It seems that the left brain and right sides of your brain help us with the following:

The human ear

The delicate complexity and reliability of just these two organs in our body – which could be backed up with the eyes  - are, for me, irrefutable evidence of the reality we call God.

The Resurrection of Jesus ben Joseph of Nazareth – without which all the first Christians would have had to be delusional – and the evidence is clearly that they were not – indicate that Jesus is indeed God translated into your human vernacular. 

The events that took place at Pentecost confirm the reality of the one we call The Holy Spirit.

Like the three sides of a triangle generate its reality, The Father and The Son and The Holy Spirit are the one  divinity that enable me to exist, thrive and delight in life – no matter what.

Rather than using the traditional Redeem and Saviour, I prefer to use  - as the writer of John’s gospel – “The Word”, which carries within it, guidance and love.

Jesus of Nazareth, The Christ, Son of Joseph, Yeshua bar Yosef in Hebrew, is for me my best friend, Yesh.

Scripture.

Language can be descriptive: “I am bald.” ”The moon orbits the earth” or motivational, as a mother might say to her boy “You can do it!” or “ I will kill you, if you don’t stop doing that.”  

I see most of The Original – some call it The Old - Testament as motivational, rather than scientifically or historically descriptive.

The New Testament is, on the evidence I have been able to glean, historical; written with the authors’ perceptions rather than imaginations.

As the police know, if what all the witnesses of an accident say is exactly the same, they must have been briefed. In reality, perceptions are skewed by  - among other factors - our focus, memory, intelligence, and imagination. Hence the variations of facts in the four Gospels.

Humanity.

Seems to stretch from the infra-red to the ultra-violet in its abilities, characters and moralities.

“By their fruits you shall know them”(Mt 7,20) Some fruits take time  - some a long time  - to appear.  

People can change. Think Saul of Tarsus, Augustine of Hippo, Ignatius Loyola. Think1894,  Ioseb Jughashvili in a seminary – who became the butcher of so many millions - Josef Stalin.

My twenty-two years in Opus Dei – where, without knowing the word, I practiced ‘grooming’ folk to get them to join, or at least donate their funds – taught me that ‘not all that glitters is gold.’(William Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, Act II Scene )

Long-range friends – people I have known for years – are, after health, the best gift in life to treasure.