Seeking That Which is Worthy

Christ and the Buddha

Carlos di Sequeira 

Writing on the Huffington Post religion page, author Susan J. Stabile offers her take on the subject, "A Christian Faith Enriched by Buddhism."  Stabile started out a Catholic, drifted away, discovered Buddhism, and eventually came back to Catholicism by way of Buddhism. She writes that, "But for Buddhism, I could not be Catholic today."  Buddhism's emphasis on "experiential knowledge" helped her to discover that for her the heart of the Christian faith is in its practice.  One doesn't believe just because authority says, "Believe," but instead the person of faith discovers through practice how to live the life of faith.  Through Buddhism, Stabile discovered the importance of time apart devoted to prayer, the value of ritual for the life of faith, and the significance of developing a personal relationship with God. It has also taught her that not all Catholics are the same and need not be the same.

In many places in the world today, religions live in fear of each other.  In many churches in our nation today, the faithful are taught to hold in disregard those who are not the same as they are.  We are fearful of boundaries.  While I suppose it is not always the case, it can be true that when we go to the boundaries of faith we discover a new depth of understanding of faith itself.  We see beyond the husk of what is imposed or expected or taken as "normal" to see that the true depth of our faith is not found in a pope or a book but in the way we are able to open ourselves to faith itself in whatever form faith takes for us.  The search, of course, is always for That which is worthy of our faith.  Living at the boundaries of the Christian faith or even beyond those boundaries can be a way to test what matters, to discover what is central, and to learn the art of living and let live—that is, in faith.  Amen.