Michael KellyDoubt is like hunger or thirst, it calls us to seek nourishment
There is little appetite for serious discussion or engagement about faith in the Irish media. In contrast to France, Germany or Italy, religion, or even the individual search for meaning, rarely gets a mention unless there is a controversy – usually involving sex or money. One seasoned journalist recently put it to me that stories involving sex or money were the kind of stories “people are really interested in”. There’s undoubtedly some truth to that, at least for some people.
Almost two weeks on from Stephen Fry’s interview with Gay Byrne in which he railed against God, the clip has attracted almost six million views on the social media site YouTube. It has also provoked major discussion in a manner akin to the early councils of the Church when theologians and thinkers argued passionately about such issues as the nature of God and the relationship between Christ’s humanity and his divinity.
Mr Fry’s central point, of course, is an age-old vexed question: how can an all-loving God permit suffering in the world. It is an anguished question that has been asked down the centuries – particularly by those good people who have had to endure almost unbearable suffering.
In theology, the struggle to grapple with this question is known as theodicy. One priest described Mr Fry as “the atheist who launched a million theodicy sermons”.
Good! The Apostle St Peter urges Christians to “always have your answer ready for people who ask you for the reason for the hope that you all have” (1 Peter 3:15). But, Church people have often failed to do this and, in the face of compelling arguments against the Faith, have fallen short. This has too often given the impression that perhaps the Faith doesn’t have an answer, or that Christianity requires some sort of suspension of normal intelligence to be believable.
Morality
This has had disastrous consequences and has led to many people who have had their questions unanswered to walk away reducing Christianity to little more than a self-help group tinged with morality.
Traditionally, Irish Catholics have not been encouraged to question their faith. Partly this is due to history: a Church which (rightly) prides itself on the fact that the Faith withstood centuries of persecution has little time for questioning or doubt.
But, here’s the fundamental error: doubt is a vital part of faith. The father who cried out “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!” in chapter nine of Mark’s Gospel spoke a fundamental truth.
But, while doubt is part of faith – as Blessed Mother Teresa’s decades of “emptiness and darkness” show – it is not a destination, but part of a journey.
Doubt is like hunger or thirst, it calls us to seek nourishment. And the Church cannot be found wanting when people seek nourishment. In the context of Stephen Fry, it’s interesting that an eloquent expression of disbelief goes viral. Would an answer to his question by our religious leaders have the same impact?
RTÉ has been running The Meaning of Life series with Gay Byrne for a few years now. Participants’ answers to the deeper questions have ranged from profound to banal, but are rarely uninteresting. Noticeably absent from the interviewees in the series have been senior Catholic Churchmen. Both Cardinal Seán and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin have declined an invitation, one would have to ask why they would decline such an opportunity to speak of faith to modern Ireland.