Faith as one strives to live it …

… FAITH: Atheism is Wasted on The Nonbeliever, by Richard Rodriguez | The Value of Sparrows.

(Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Dave suggests that I post a poem of mine that Dave thinks would serve as a companion to Richard's wonderful meditation. Well, here's the poem:

 Chiaroscuro

Believing, as he did, he knew himself to be

A connoisseur of doubt’s defining shadows.

The way of faith, he knew, was not as those

Who chose another route, or none, presumed.

At times a spacious highway gleaming beneath

The sun, it dwindles to an ill-trod path.

Mostly, though, it’s a trail, still sparsely blazed,

Winding among thickets, beneath towering

Trees, into regions desolate, unknown

To every pilgrim who may venture there

In solitude — though never quite alone,

If faith holds: For another shadows one

Among the crowding shadows tempting one.

And so, at the Elevation of the Host,

The questing man inquires of himself,

“Do I believe?” And answers silently,

“Yes.  In the savage mystery of it all,

How shameful death gave birth to life eternal,

Pressed into fruit of corn and vine made God’s

Own flesh as nourishment for human souls.”

He continues to perform his act of faith

Outside the church in light of day, his mind

Descanting glosses on the creed: “Old myths

And legends tell us more than science can

Of undissected life: My jade tree basking

In morning sunlight never can be placed

Upon some slide beneath a lens, for sun

And jade embrace to form a living bond

That can no more be measured, weighed, defined

Than beauty can. So likewise love and hate

Are more than chemistry or heritage.

Upon the stage that is the world, it is

The drama being mounted there that counts.

Ignore the creaking boards, the faded curtain:

Of action, character, and denouement

They tell us nothing. Art and life demand

We willingly suspend our disbelief

And so discern the form defining truth.”