VIDERE EST CREDERE

What makes people believe? No doubt the reasons are as numerous as the people who give them.

Most of us like Thomas and those first disciples want to see tangible evidence. Second hand evidence is not convincing. The disciples themselves only half believed the rumours that Jesus had risen from the dead. Peter and John had only seen the empty tomb, and although Mary Magdalene was adamant she had seen Jesus face to face, she had, in fact, failed to recognise him in the first instant - not a very reliable witness. But when Jesus appeared to them in the flesh, as they always knew him, they believed. .

But do we have to see the risen Jesus in the flesh to believe? Peter in his post Pentecost address in Acts offers his audience a mixture of reasons for believing when he reminds them of the signs and wonders that God had performed which had been made known to them. Peter offers them himself and the other disciples as eyewitnesses. So today the Bible and its study keep us informed of God’s wondrous work among us and we should offer ourselves as convincing witnesses of our faith to those who ask why we believe.

It was hope that brought the disciples together in that locked room where Jesus appeared to them. It is hope that keeps our faith going to, because if the resurrection is true, then there is really some point to the world. Perhaps we are, after all, not just born to suffer and to die, but are actually part of an on-going movement towards the Kingdom of God.

Having accepted the hope, the disciples created a community, the Church, who lived and worshipped together. Together we too shall hold on to that hope, whatever the odds. When one of us succumbs to doubt, others will reassure our belief. As a worshipping Christian community we are never on our own.

Reasons for believing are various and ridiculous. All of them at times may appear ridiculous to others, and even to us. One person’s proof is another’s sneer.

But let us remember that at the heart of all these reasons lies the risen Jesus, breathing his life giving spirit upon us. His life begins to fill our lungs as we breathe in, standing in his presence, inhaling the fragrance of God’s own life. This is an experience unique to each one of us, a good enough reason for believing.

It is when we experience the troughs and the peaks of life that we appreciate the presence of the risen Lord, a presence that strengthens and sustains us. Yes, videre est credere - seeing is believing.

Randall Enoch
Reader, St Peter's Formby

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