When a person knows something, really knows it, deep down in his heart, he doesn’t have to argue about it or prove it. He just knows it, and that’s enough. We are no longer sufficiently aware of the importance of what we cannot know intellectually, and which we must know in other ways.
Nevertheless, we can sympathise with Thomas. He was merely echoing the human cry for certainty. However, here on earth there is no absolute certainty about God and spiritual realities. We have to be content with ‘seeing a dim reflection in a mirror’. We are not looking through an open door but peering through a chink. This chink is big enough to let the light in, but not so big as to eliminate the wonder and the mystery.
Too much light or too little light and we are blind. ‘There is enough light for those who want to see, and enough darkness for those of a contrary disposition.’ (Pascal)
Rationalists approach God and religion as something that can be understood and explained; mystics approach God as something mysterious that can neither be understood nor explained but only experienced. Faith takes us where our senses cannot go. But which is the stronger: faith without doubts, or faith that contends with doubt?
With love and prayers
Fr Michael