That idea of ​​the Christian religion as the opium of the people is very outdated. Faith does not lull men to sleep, but rather stimulates them to work hard in the world side by side with everyone, including agnostics and atheists, to develop an ever more humane society.

Science and Faith

This season, two books continue to be relevant that deal with the human sciences that lead to the reasoned conviction that God exists. I am referring to the French engineer’s book, “God-Science-Proof“[i], and the Spanish author González-Hurtado’s[ii] book, entitled “New Scientific Evidence of the Existence of God.” These are two works of interest to the public as well as to scientists and researchers in empirical sciences such as physics, astronomy, mathematics, and biotechnology.

José Carlos González-Hurtado’s title shows that many scientists and Nobel Prize winners are convinced that God exists because their reflections on the data and laws of nature conclude that chance cannot explain the complexity of the universe, the articulation of the laws of nature, and even less so the origin of life, particularly the meaning of human life and its transcendent purpose.

For example, what does the faith of many scientists, founded on convictions and not just pious suppositions, mean? He also asks what it means to be an atheist and whether they are bad people, which, evidently, is not the case. Another question concerns contemporary agnosticism as a catch-all or generality that many present as a new atheism that respects faith. He also asks why not all scientists are theists or convinced of the existence of God. And he offers some easy-to-understand reasons, because scientists are men and women like everyone else, sometimes subject to social pressure, psychological limitations, prejudice, fear, and even arrogance. And he concludes with an epilogue titled “What Now?”

Each reader can reflect on the many scientific data presented and reasonable testimonies in order to consolidate their convictions, reinforce the reasons for their faith, and be able to offer others the great news that God exists, that he created the good world as a marvelous work through which men can discover its Author. If they also have the gift of faith, as is the case with Christians, we know that he is Provident, he is Love, he has become incarnate, he is the Savior of all, and he has even given his life to give us eternal life, which is not a mere figment of the imagination, but the great calling for all men, the great news that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Personal contributions to the eternal question of why there is being and not nothingness, of chance or necessity, of complete happiness or personal failure, of life as good or meaningless extinction, are welcome. And the paradox of the grain of wheat that dies to give new life, continuity and discontinuity, which finds light in the vertical tree and the horizontal crossbar of the Cross of Jesus Christ, continues: God incarnate, true God and man, the supreme paradox that invites the leap of faith and happiness.

Faith from Humility

Leo XIV echoes these questions when he says: “In our time, we still see too much discord, too many wounds caused by hatred, violence, prejudice, fear of what is different, by an economic paradigm that exploits the earth’s resources and marginalizes the poorest. And we want to be, within this mass, a small leaven of unity, communion, and fraternity. We want to say to the world, with humility and joy: look to Christ!

Draw near to Him! Welcome His Word that illuminates and consoles! Listen to His proposal of love to form His unique family: in the one Christ we are one. And this is the path we must travel together, united among ourselves, but also with our sister Christian Churches, with those who walk other religious paths, with those who cultivate the restlessness of searching for God, with all women and men of good will, to build a new world where peace reigns”.

Some may be disconcerted by the certainty of faith proclaimed by the Church from the Apostles’ Creed: I believe in God the Father, Creator, I believe in God the Son, Redeemer, I believe in the Holy Spirit, sanctifier, I believe in the Church, I believe in the forgiveness of sins, I believe in eternal life. This may seem like an unscientific assurance and even a prideful posture in the face of those who doubt so many certainties. However, the affirmation of faith is light and shadow, security and risk, hope and pain. Nothing in the human being is diamond-like, chemically pure, absolute thought.

Pope Leo XIV expressed this truthfully in his homily: “I was chosen without any merit, and with fear and trepidation, I come to you as a brother who wants to become a servant of your faith and your joy, walking with you on the path of God’s love, who wants us all united in one family.”

And he added another confession of humility as a believer in Jesus Christ and responsible for peace in the world: “This is the missionary spirit that should animate us, without closing ourselves off in our small group or feeling superior to the world; we are called to offer God’s love to all, so that that unity may be realized, which does not erase differences, but values ​​the personal history of each person and the social and religious culture of each people.”

We believers are grateful for the gift of faith and God’s grace. We strive to understand everyone, even those who do not understand us, and to practice charity, which is even more humane than tolerance. In loving our neighbor, as children of God and brothers of Jesus Christ, we are aware of the difficulties some encounter, and we ask God the Father to pour out his hope upon the often-tormented world. We are certain that all are saved by God’s mercy and drawn to the cross of Jesus Christ, perfect man, true God. However, we must work at it from humility and trusting prayer.

“To love the world passionately” is the expression of a saint of our time who spread the vocation to holiness in the tasks of ordinary life, not vulgar, but elevated, the love of God and neighbor inseparable: “No, my children! There cannot be a double life, we cannot be like schizophrenics if we want to be Christians: there is only one life, made of flesh and spirit, and that is the one that must be—in soul and body—holy and full of God: we find this invisible God in the most visible and material things. There is no other way, my children: either we know how to find the Lord in our ordinary lives, or we will never find him. That is why I can tell you that our time needs to restore—to matter and to situations that seem most vulgar—their noble and original meaning, to place them at the service of the Kingdom of God, to spiritualize them, making them a means and occasion for our continual encounter with Jesus Christ”.

There is, therefore, no Christian paradox or dilemma, but rather an affirmation of God and of humanity with their freedom and their tasks in the world: “The authentic Christian sense—which professes the resurrection of all flesh—has always, as is logical, confronted disembodiment, without fear of being judged materialistic. It is legitimate, therefore, to speak of a Christian materialism, which boldly opposes materialisms closed to the spirit.”[iii]

The Great Christian Paradox (I)

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[i] God-Science-Proofs. Olivier Bonnassies-Michel-Yves Bolloré. Ed. Funambulista.

[ii] José Carlos González-Hurtado. New Scientific Evidence for the Existence of God. Voz de Papel, Madrid, 2023

[iii] Conversations with Bishop Escrivá de Balaguer. Ed. Rialp. Nos. 114-115.