What makes people believe?

A Reflection for Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Find today’s readings here.

I spent a fair bit of time reflecting on today’s Gospel reading and continued to come back to a specific question: Why didn’t they believe Jesus was who he said he was? Even when He tried to get them to acknowledge the mystery and wonder of His works, they rejected Him.

All this got me thinking about the nature of faith. It’s hard to believe those things we cannot see, and there are so many reasons to doubt. Sometimes we are so dug into a certain perspective or opinion that there seems to be no room for reconsideration. And what does it mean to be a believer in this day and age, anyway? With all the suffering around us—the inequality, the violence, the injustice, the callousness—you don’t have to look too hard to wonder what kind of merciful God allows so much discord and pain in our world.

All this may lead one to believe that faith is a choice: We believe even when there are so many reasons not to. And, on some level, I think that is true. But that perspective overlooks all the tangible proof of God’s goodness is palpable in our lives, families, communities and societies. 

The laughter of my children; the marvelous company of my nephews and nieces; the kindness my husband shows to my elderly father; the beauty of the sun glinting on the snow; the generosity of the meal train in our town supporting a family with a very ill child; the act of gathering with my family and friends for Stations of the Cross during Lent; the experience of laughing with a close friend at a long-held inside joke. Every single one of those occasions—and so many others—are signs of God’s presence in our world and within each other.

At the end of today’s Gospel, we hear that Jesus returned back across the Jordan after escaping his prosecutors. It was there that “many began to believe.” It’s not explicit what convinced those people to finally realize Jesus’ greatness, but maybe they began to recognize the abundance of earthly manifestations of His message: inclusion, love, accompaniment, compassion, forgiveness and fidelity. Perhaps, in moments of doubt or uncertainty, we might do the same.