Clairity's Place on "Faith and Certainty"

Clairity's Place offers an insightful reflection on Two pillars of our need. She asks first if certainty "is really our most basic human need, underneath our hungers, fears, bottomless anger?" From there, she addresses the importance that it plays in our lives, and from where we derive it. Or don't. She notes that C&L founder Fr. Giussani possessed a keen insight regarding this:

n the section of Why the Church? about "The Cultural Value of a New Concept of Truth," Giussani compares the Hebrew concept to that of the Greek world. For the Hebrew, God is the rock. It is He himself who is certain for us, rather than just our idea of Him. Yahweh - I am who am. His Being is the pivotal point for our own, and is the only thing that will anchor us in the world, which is full of everything uncertain from capricious circumstance to the unsteady roiling of our own psyches.

Giussani distinguishes this notion from the Western conception of truth as "light". In the latter case, we depend on our own intelligence and judgment to decipher the truth. In our experience, nothing could be more tenuous, and in our heart of hearts we know it. We know our own vagaries. We make resolutions we can't keep, promises to others that we're not true to. St. Paul: "What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate." (Romans 7:15)

The use of this metaphor [rock] demonstrates how seeing with one's own eyes is not the supreme method in the Semitic mind for developing an awareness of the truth. What is more important is reference to something secure, something stable. Indeed, the word "amen" in Hebrew has the same root as the word "truth," and this root means, precisely, "stability, permanence." And the word "amen" is an affirmation of security: this remains, and so it is true, it is like that.

Faith in Christ Jesus, the Rock who saves us, becomes our only sure guarantor of certainty. As Ms. Mollerus so wisely points out, the failure of the enlightenment paradigm is it's inability to conceive of a compromised humanity. We, the citizens of the real world, painfully understand how compromised our humanity is. We know those times we've failed to live according to our convictions. We remember the times we stayed seated when we should have stood. We regret the times we shouted out loud when we should have remained silent. Were we to depend only upon ourselves for a sense of certainty, we would never experience it. Our own addiction to evil and the self-destructive will not make that possible.

Christ, on the other hand, has the strength that compensates our weaknesses. His fidelity is without question, even in the midst of our adultry. His courage stands fast even as we run screaming in fear. His very presence is a Rock, on which we may cling when cast about by the unforgiving tides of circumstance. In our imperfect world, he is our perfection. He has made the sacrifice that we owed but could not hope to make. When he says, "Apart from me, you can do nothing" (John 15:5), he does not speak in figurative language. He speaks the undeniable truth!

I have experienced my darkest moments of uncertainty when I believed I could trust my own insight and strengths without leaning on the Rock. I spent a year consumed in doubt, struggling on my own to overcome my deficits. I can still see the faces of the many collegues and students that I let down. I still feel the rage of fighting for justice that simply wouldn't be mine. That year turned my dream career into my unrelenting nightmare. My ship rocked back in forth on the storm-swept sea and took on water. If I saw Jesus then, I cowered inside of my sinking shelter. I lacked Peter's confidence to even step out upon the water to him. I lacked Faith, that fundamental trust in God. My year ended with my departure from my dream.

With Faith in Christ, none of us need fear the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. We rely for certainty upon the One that can deliver it. For he is Jesus Christ, and by the blood of his cross has he secured power and dominion over all, even death itself. What do we need to fear when we place our trust in him?

If we long for certainty, we need to look no further than Jesus Christ to find it.