***
I finished a novel recently called, The Diary of a Country Priest, which is about a young priest living in a small village in the French countryside.
Most of the book is composed of his diary entries, documenting – among other things – the slow erosion of faith that happens in the lives of some of his parishioners.
“Faith,” he writes, “is not something you lose like a set of keys.”
It happens over time. God simply becomes less involved in our decision-making.
Some of the characters struggled with unanswered prayers. Others turned away from God in their grief. Others were distracted by materialism, image, or the busyness of daily life.
In each case, the erosion of faith took place over time, not all at once.
***
In the Gospel, Jesus encounters the religious authorities of his day.
Like the characters in Diary of a Country Priest, these were probably good men, law abiding men, but men who’d slowly lost their faith to the point that God was standing right in front of them and they didn’t even know it!
Their hearts weren’t inquisitive; they were hardened.
***
Have I ever felt distanced from God? If so, what caused it?
Maybe it was an unanswered prayer, sudden loss, temptation, or the busyness of daily life.
***
Faith is not something we lose like a set of keys. It takes time to put God in the backseat.
Conversely, it takes an equal amount of effort to strengthen our faith, letting Jesus take the wheel.
Wherever we are on our faith journeys, may we lean a little more on God and a little less on ourselves, trusting it’s okay to fall.
So long as we fall forward.