Last week, I was riding METRO with nothing to read and so I found myself listening in on the conversations around me. One conversation caught my attention immediately. Two young adults were discussing the practice of building shrines in the family home to honor ancestors. One friend asked the other if he would do this in his home and he said “no, because I don’t believe in any kind of life after death. ” His friend responded,” how can you not believe in life after death, you have to believe that!”
The young man asked, “Do you believe in something like heaven because you think you have to or because you really believe?”
Do you think you have to believe?
This is such a great question. We grow in our faith, we experience deeper conversion when we continue to ask ourselves not only what we believe but why we believe. My experience in sharing my faith is that people are really interested in knowing why we believe even more than what we believe. Do we have good answers for the difference what we believe makes in our own lives? I was stopped in my tracks one night at RCIA when a woman asked me to share from my own experience why I believe the Eucharist is really the body of Christ. She even said “don’t use any of your theological words, just tell me why you believe it is!”
Back to my story
So, the friend, when confronted with the question about why she believes in life after death said, “I think there is life after death because love doesn’t die.” I thought to myself, well, that is exactly what God thinks!
What a meaningful, wonderful post you have here. Simplicity at its finest are the most eloquent words. Thank you for sharing this with us!
Thanks Vonna, the simpler the better!
Funny you should bring this up — our RCIA team met on Monday night and our associate pastor challenged us with the same question: why do we believe what we believe? It is hard to answer.
Genna, I think this kind of question is so imoprtant for RCIA team members to tackle. GoodLuck!