Discussion questions for Patience with God: The Story of Zacchaeus
Continuing In Us by Tomáš Halík (Doubleday Religion)
1. Maturing in one's faith also entails enduring periods of God's silence.
We need faith precisely in those twilight moments when our lives and the world
are full of uncertainty and its function is not to allay our thirst for
certainty and safety, but to teach us to live with mystery. Faith, hope
and love are three aspects of our patience with God; they are three ways of
coming to terms with the experience of God's hiddenness. If
God exercises such patience with us, can we refuse him our patience and hope,
and love – even in moments of darkness and emptiness, when there is no
alternative but to wait or defect from the path of waiting? Waiting on God does
not happen only in the waiting room of faith but belongs also at the very heart
of faith. Do you also think that having patience with God is an integral part of religious
experience?
2.
Jesus had a prior interest in 'people on the fringes'. Solidarity with
the poor, the exploited and the persecuted, care for the sick and handicapped
is an important part of the Christian witness in this world. But today
there is also need for an interest in the doubters and seekers. Why
does the author believe that the Church can benefit from the seekers and
outsiders? What could we learn from them? How do you we, as the Church, currently
treat those without the same faith as ours?
3.
The author speaks about a man
who became an atheist after a tragic event in his family. He considers that
someone like that cannot be convinced by the usual "proofs" of God's
existence or facile pious comfort. The author states: "There is only one way to
conquer this passionate atheism of protest. Let us embrace it with the passion
of our faith, let us make this existential experience part of our own. Mature
faith is always faith wounded by the world's suffering. The resurrected Christ
identified Himself to his apostles with His scars." What are your experiences from conversations with people whose faith
was wounded by personal tragedy?
4. Many theologians support the
theory of 'continuing creation'; could we not similarly speak of a continuing
Resurrection? The author maintains that the liberating encounter with the
living God is by participation in the Resurrection…to believe means to open
one's heart and to realize that now, at this very moment, the sealed stone has
been rolled aside and the rays of the Easter morning have triumphed over the
dark, cold tomb. Do you know of
any other such "experience of the Resurrection" from your own
experience or from stories of other people?
