The Holy Children who were murdered by Herod in Bethlehem; Our Venerable Father Marcellus, Hegumen of the Monastery of the Sleepless Ones (c. 470)
Hebrews 10:35-11:7; Mark 9:10-16
Read Hebrews 10:35-11:7
Christ is born! Glorify Him!
Here is a good question for us today: are faith and reason opposed to each other? From what we are often hear in various programs and documentaries today, faith might be posed as some sort of leap in thought, a belief against reason. You might even hear that we might believe in in a god or in science – it’s one or the other.
As Christians, we have learned from our Lord, and from many others who have thought well about this, that faith is not opposed reason but, as Mary Healy writes, is beyond reason. We learn from the Holy Scriptures that faith is a way of knowing. She writes, “[faith] perceives that which cannot be perceived with senses or deduced by logic, but which God has revealed.” In this way, faith complements and elevates that which we have come to know through reason and science.
By way of example, let us consider the creation of the world. The vast number of scientists today will tell you that the universe is a result of a singularity often called the “Big Bang.” What scientists cannot tell you is what it is that caused the Big Bang. Our faith reveals to us that it was God. It fits with the science and actually begins to give some meaning to what the universe is. Where do we find this, in the Book of Genesis (not a science book but a faith book).
We have various people in salvation history who walked in faith. Abraham, the father of faith, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Rebekah, Mary, etc. Faith is not just some idea, some paper in a file cabinet; faith is a lived experience, a life to live.