Faith in Christ in no way can forgo God's Reason for us!

 Faith in Christ in no way can forgo God’s Reason for us!

It becomes a dichotomy when we place faith and reason against each other.  In one sense true faith accepts the sufferings that life always seems to confront us with.  On the other hand, using science, theologically called reason, as a means of getting through life's difficulties, we insult those who rely on faith alone to get through the sufferings of humanity’s realities.

The Christian Science religion is one that uses faith in God exclusively without medical and other modern sciences to bring about a conclusive result when any type of suffering enters our domain.  Yet, if we truly are following Jesus in his mission, with two natures in his being, we must adhere to the fact that it is through his suffering that God’s purpose of forgiveness could not have been accomplished without it.  His Incarnation into humanity had to become a realistic phenomenon that is what humans live with.  We might question this environmental entity that God allows us to grapple with, but the basis of sin is what caused all of this upheaval in the world and until that is overcome there will always be suffering.  

Faith and science:  “Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason.  Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth.”  Consequently, methodical research in all branches of knowledge, provided it is carried out in a truly scientific manner and does not override moral laws, can never conflict with the faith, because the things of the world and the things of faith derive from the same God.   The humble and persevering investigator of the secrets of nature is being led, as it were, by the hand of God in spite of himself, for it is God, the conserver of all things, who made them what they are.  (CCC 159).

During the ministry I was part of at Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh, there were some people who followed the theory of faith alone and entered the hospital making their rounds into severe patients telling them, “If you have faith you could get out of that bed instead of relying on medicine.”  This of course came to an end by denying them entrance in the hospital.  Who did they think created medicine and all the other scientific realities we live with, and by the grace of God,  improve our way of life?  

Human intelligence is surely already capable of finding a response to the question of origins.  The existence of God the Creator can be known with certainty through his works, by the light of human reason, even if this knowledge is often obscured and disfigured by error.  This is why faith comes to confirm and enlighten reason in the correct understanding of this truth:  By faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made out of things which do not appear.  (CCC 286).  

We were taught in Theology Class that faith and reason are like two vines hanging alongside each other and the two are intertwined together making their presence as one entity from God.  We cannot divide the sense of both as needed in our lifetime.   Suffering becomes a part of human existence and faith and reason are integral parts of this reality.  

Ralph B. Hathaway