3 ways to respond when your faith is challenged
Photo by Josh Applegate on Unsplash
Walking through Dublin city centre on Ash Wednesday, I exchanged glances with a gentleman passing me on the footpath. Both of us were wearing ashes on our foreheads. It was a moment of connection, acknowledging each other's faith and observance of the holy day.
This interaction made me think about how I respond when my faith is challenged. Sometimes, it can be easy to feel defensive or dismissive when someone questions or criticises our beliefs. However, I’ve learned that there are more fruitful ways to approach these situations. Here are three insights that can help when your faith is challenged:
Deepen in the supernatural value of your suffering
Living your faith in Ireland today is very hard. We have to recognise this and value it for what it is. We suffer when people sneer at our beliefs in the workplace. We feel a sense of despair when the very people we love in the world - our family and friends - continuously make hurtful comments.
We need to recognise it for what it is, but also use this pain fruitfully - letting it lead us to Christ. What we experience now is not something new in the Church. Our sisters and brothers in the Church down through the centuries experienced similar sufferings. It’s worth reading the lives of the Saints and the history of the Church to recognise ourselves there.
I find the prayers composed by Saint Cardinal John Henry Newman very helpful in this regard. I think of him as I walk along St Stephen’s Green, passing the University Church. He walked these streets. He suffered for his faith, but he used this suffering to cling to Our Lord with all his might. We are there too with him, sharing in the sufferings of Jesus Christ and we too can become saints through this.
“Therefore, I will trust Him, whatever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him, in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me. Still, He knows what He is about”.
- Cardinal Saint John Henry Newman, My Mission in Life
Our witness is everything
This suffering that we experience leads us to be more Christ-like. What would our Lord have done in our situation? When up against it at the workplace or at home, what should we do? I want to outline some practical points:
Seek to understand rather than seek to be understood. Most people just want to be listened to and heard. We need to foster dialogue and ask questions that lead to a greater understanding of the other person's position. Show people that we understand what they are saying by repeating their words back to them. These conversations don’t need closure or a solution. It’s important to leave them open-ended. The soul, like a garden, needs air, light, water, and nourishment; and that takes time. Personally, I think Bishop Barron is a great example of a person who knows how to dialogue. Some people criticise him for it because he doesn't “speak clearly” enough but what he is doing is keeping the conversation open to allow this person and his listeners to reflect later on.
Kindness and cheerfulness go a long way. If people see that we don’t lose our peace, they will be more open to confide in us. Charity is the greatest thing we can offer others. We need to avoid getting down or discouraged because of a comment here or there, or even a frontal attack to our faith. It sounds easy but our joy is in Christ and difficulties and setbacks lead us to Him, not away from Him.
Feed your soul intellectually. It’s not enough to pray and attend the Sacraments. We need to read good, solid, doctrinally sound books to nourish our faith. Combining faith with reason strengthens our interior life so that any outside attacks don’t undermine us as much. We don’t read books about our faith so as to have the right answers for people. We read these books so that our faith is organically part of our entire being - both body, mind and soul. And any explanations we do give will have been digested by our very being - through prayer and reflection. This is far more convincing to a person than any “right answer” because we are sharing ourselves and not just some doctrinal point we might have read at some stage.
Defend the Faith, not for ourselves but for others
While I did say at the beginning of this blog post that difficulties we might face in our Faith should be opportunities to deepen in our identification with Christ, we also have a duty sometimes to defend our Faith.
We are doing this not for ourselves but for those Christians that come after us. I am thinking in particular of the workplace and the importance of putting into effect what is preached in the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policy of our place of work.
If we feel our Faith is being undermined in the workplace, we need to channel that feedback. It’s important because if we are feeling it, then other people who practise their faith are more likely feeling it too.
With all of the above, it’s a helpful reminder that we are Christians. And it’s inevitable that anyone who stands by their beliefs will be mocked. This is not new to our time, but naturally, this is the only time we have, and so we feel it deeply. What is important is that we turn to Jesus Christ when we experience this tug of discouragement, and lean on Him. That’s what the Apostles did, and we are equally called to do the same.
