The Hidden Answer

I read about this story yesterday on The Huffington Post, and it’s been running around in my head a lot over the last couple of days. It sounds like the cleric and the agnostic are too busy yelling at each other to try and understand the other’s point of view, so I’ll try to help.

The judge (Gaetano Mautone) told the cleric to prove that Christ exists. In terms of recognizing a person that many of us who are Christian have studied and read about for many years, that is impossible, and the judge is a shameless, publicity-seeking grandstander (and I’m being polite) for ignoring that fact. Along with (I suspect) many other Christians, I was taught, through movies, books, and other schooling, that He looked like H.B. Warner, Jeffrey Hunter, Max Von Sydow, Robert Powell, Willem Dafoe, or Jim Caviezel. Still others believe that Jesus had dark skin (not unlikely, actually, since he lived and taught in the area we now know as the Middle East), and I had an interesting discussion with a guy once who believed that, during his 40 days in the desert, He actually journeyed to Asia, since a lot of the Catholic teachings based on the New Testament have to do with internal behavior and creating “a revolution from within,” if you will, akin to Buddhism, as opposed to all of the drama of the Old Testament.

Since I don’t expect to ever encounter Him in this world (though I “know not the time and place,” as He taught), I expect to find him in signs, behaviors, and “little miracles,” if you will, such as:

- When a loved one emerges from a life-saving medical procedure with mind and body in tact

- Even when someone suffers an injury or disease, they manage to still retain enough of themselves to provide strength and comfort to others.

- When someone has interviewed for a job just as their unemployment is about to run out, and through hard work and diligence, they obtain that job.

- At a time when your car is broken down by the side of the road and you cannot call for help because your cell phone is dead, someone stops by, helps you change a tire with a friendly word or two, and refuses to take any money from you despite your strenuous objections.

- At a time of momentous, grievous sorrow, others stop by to provide strength and comfort, including people you never knew but somehow know of you and want to help.

- When a previously inexplicable mystery in life is somehow revealed to you and you realize that you’ve completed a step along your journey to what will (hopefully) be eternal peace

- When you speak the truth despite overwhelming or even slight difficulty

At times such as these, I believe that Our Lord reveals Himself to us. I sincerely hope that, one day, Judge Mautone comes to understand that.