Faith Seeking Understanding.

“Whatever,” when said with a shrug of the shoulders for added effect, is a modern symbol of indifference or apathy. Many see indifference, and not unbelief, as the polar opposite of belief.

Thank God that St. Thomas, absent on that first Easter evening when our Risen Savior appeared to the others, didn’t shrug his shoulder and proclaim, Whatever”! Instead, like a modern scientist, his unbelief sought proof within his own senses. It was humbling for Thomas when Jesus appeared a second time and invited him to touch his very wounds. This led to perhaps the most famous act of belief: “my Lord and my God.” And Thomas’s same spirit of inquiry and zeal would carry him east to proclaim the Gospel, to India and some say even to Japan.

While our culture might see faith and reason as diametrically opposed to each other, in St. Thomas we see that lively faith seeks understanding—fides quaerens intellectum, as St. Anselm memorably said in the eleventh century. Later medieval theologians would go on to affirm that, when properly understood, questioning and a sense of wonder bring faith and science together.

On the threshold of Independence Day, we pray for a freedom not to utter “whatever” to life’s mysteries but to have the capacity to be inquiring and to be amazed—and so make friends of science and faith. Doubting Thomas is a good patron.

Archbishop Joseph Kurtz. Taken from Give Us This Day.

The Most Reverend Joseph E. Kurtz, DD, is Archbishop of Louisville.