Faith can never be fractional…
The other day I attended a funeral. It was a very sad day.
It was sad to bid farewell to a soul who you have loved for the whole of your Earthly life.
And yet, there was something more to think about. If we were to think of this life as permanent, then a funeral really would be a terrible thing. But in actual fact, a funeral is something much more than that.
You see, when they lowered that person’s body into the Earth so that her body would return to the dust from which where she had come, the thing that stayed in my mind was that I was sure that such a body as that would be of no use to her anymore.
You see, between this world and the next one, there is just a little veil. There is a curtain that is so close and so transparent between these two worlds it only takes a moment of silence and some reflection in prayer to realise that there is something there to see.
And when we see – with the eyes of our soul – the vision of Eternity stretched out through the actions of a funeral, then our soul can truly be at peace.
Because Faith is not fractional. We cannot be a little bit faithful. We cannot be a little bit believing. We cannot sort of believe in God and eternity. We can either believe or not believe. It is black or white. There is a great commitment in a soul to believe. To believe is to step out into the abyss and believe truly and madly and deeply that my Beloved is holding out His Hand to catch me.
And a faith like that – a commitment like that – is non-existent in a world where there is no such thing as commitment. We live in a culture where people are afraid of marriage. They are afraid to commit their Earthly lives to another soul. They are afraid of a career that spans their Earthly life. They are afraid of being locked down into one country and one place.
And when you consider what our God asks of us – that fear is certainly not from Him.
For our God asks nothing of us other than that we should commit to Him. Nothing of us other than that we should close our eyes and trust in Him.
He asks us these things during our life, so that in the moment of our death, when we come to breathe our last, we will be able to step out into the abyss and know that our Beloved is waiting for us with His Hand stretched out to catch us.
And when I think about that it occurs to me that a funeral is no terrible or sad thing. A funeral is a blessing. For it reminds us that Faith can never be fractional…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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