Reflections
It is not as a boy that I believe in Christ and confess him, but my hosanna has passed through a great furnace of doubts.
— Fyodor Dostoevsky
from an entry in his personal notebook
- Competing realities:
- Our own introspection vs outside world
- New reality for disciples after Lent and Easter, but not snapping back on like a switch
- But Mary was becoming student of Rabbi, after seeing Jesus suffer
- When we see others suffering, it haunts us, stays with us in memory
- Jesus’ resurrected body still has the scars, still has the mark of pain and torture
- Peter, after denying Jesus three times, filled with guilt, but received Jesus’ first word “Peace be with you”
- Holy Spirit – Jesus’ gift to the disciples
- Doubting Thomas missing out the first time
- Our spiritual experience might not be helpful to others, might even guilt others who have not had the similar experience yet
- Can we be vulnerable and willing to show our wounds, like Jesus did?
- Even though he missed out the first time, Thomas sticks around, with this resurrecting community, with an open mind, giving time and space
- Radiolab episode “Are You Sure?” segment “Rocked by Doubt”, Jeff is not so sure about faith, not as much as his fiance Megan’s faith
- Jeff might still not be a Christian without a doubt, but he has experienced God in one small way in the end of story
- Our “diversity” of spiritual experience in Christ