That's what attracted me
Life is a mystery, love is a delight.
Therefore I take it as axiomatic that one should settle for nothing less than
the infinite mystery and the infinite delight, i.e., God.
Q: What
kind of Catholic are you... a dogmatic Catholic or an open-minded Catholic?
A: I
don't know what that means. Do you mean do I believe the dogma that the
Catholic Church proposes for belief?
Q: Yes.
A: Yes.
Q: How
is such a belief possible in this day and age?
A: What
else is there?
Q: What
do you mean, what else is there? There is humanism, atheism, agnosticism,
Marxism, behaviourism, materialism, Buddhism, Islam, Sufism, astrology,
occultism. theosophy.
A:
That's what I mean....
Q: I
don't understand. Would you exclude, for example, scientific humanism as a
rational and honourable alternative?
A: Yes.
Q: Why?
A: It's
not good enough.
Q: Why
not?
A: This
life is too much trouble, far too strange, to arrive at the end of it and then
to be asked what you make of it and have to answer "Scientific
humanism". That won't do. A poor show. Life is a mystery, love is a
delight. Therefore I take it as axiomatic that one should settle for nothing
less than the infinite mystery and the infinite delight, i.e., God. In fact I
demanded it. I refuse to settle for anything less. I don't see why any one should settle for less than Jacob, who actually grabbed a holt of God and would not let go until God identified himself and blessed
him.
Q:
Grabbed a
holt?
A: A
Louisiana expression....
Q: How
do you account for your belief?
A: I can
only account for it as a gift from God.
Q: Why
would God make you such a gift when there are others who seem more deserving,
that is, serve their fellow man?
A: I
don't know. God does strange things....
Q: But
shouldn't one's faith bear some relation to the truth, facts?
A: Yes.
That's what attracted me, Christianity's rather insolent claim to be true, with
the implication that other religions are more or less false.
Q: You
believe that?
A: Of
course.
WALTER PERCY
Walter Percy (d. 1990) was a Catholic convert, novelist, and essayist.