It is a perennial question. It's the one that Philip asked Jesus. The answer, therefore, that I will give you is the same one that Jesus gave him: ‘You can look at all you have seen and heard and still ask that question?’ To see certain things is to have seen the Father!' To ask a question like this is tantamount to looking at the most beautiful day in June, seeing all the trees and flowers in full blossom and asking a friend, ‘Where is summer?' To see certain things is to see summer. To see certain things is to see God.’
With those thoughts in mind, I would like here to offer a set of questions that Karl Rahner used to ask people when they asked him about the veil of faith:
-Have you ever kept silent, despite the urge to defend yourself, when you were unfairly treated?
-Have you ever forgiven another although you gained nothing by it and your forgiveness was accepted as quite natural?
-Have you ever made a sacrifice without receiving any thanks or acknowledgement, without even feeling any inward satisfaction?
-Have you ever decided to do a thing simply for the sake of conscience, knowing that you must bear sole responsibility for your decision without being able to explain it to anyone?
-Have you ever tried to act purely for love of God when no warmth sustained you, when your act seemed a leap in the dark, simply nonsensical?
-Have you ever been good to someone without expecting a trace of gratitude and without the comfortable feeling of having been "unselfish"?
If you have had such experiences, Rahner asserts, then you have had experienced God, perhaps without realizing it.
(Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI)
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