Living The Faith On A High Wire

It was 1965. The family set off on an intercontinental cruise aboard the SS United States from New York to Madrid, filled with anticipation and excitement.

Several days into their voyage, the ship hit turbulent weather. The storm descended upon the ocean liner with ferocity, rattling the ship and its seasoned crew. Waves towered over both sides of the vessel, lifting the ship up and plunging it into the sea.

The passengers were confined indoors—all except a curious 10-year-old boy, who wandered away from his parents and three brothers and somehow made it onto the deck.

As he opened the door and stepped outside, a large wave pummeled the ship. The boy lost his footing on the wet floor and started sliding as the waves continued their relentless assault.

“In this monument. there is a soul. A soul. And we feel that when we enter now. We feel that,” said Philippe Jost, President of the public establishment for the conservation and restoration of the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, in an interview with 60 Minutes’ Bill Whitaker.

Jost's observation was very astute. A soul is what gives a person life, animating our humanity.

It started with my daughter’s Mini Cooper. She said the brakes failed while driving in heavy traffic after leaving work in Miami Beach, and she rear-ended another car. Nothing happened to her, thank God! Nothing really happened to the car, or at least, nothing I could see. But I drove it home after going to the scene of the “crash” to make sure the brakes were alright, and I took it to the shop to be checked out. Sure enough, the mechanic said the car needed new brake pads and rotors.

Aristotle once said, "nature abhors a vacuum," which came to mind recently as I reflect on how politics has become a religion for far too many, particularly during the heat of a presidential campaign. 

In the absence of God, human nature tends to turn to what St. Thomas Aquinas identifies as the four substitutes for God—wealth, pleasure, power, and honor.