The first thing that strikes an inquirer after religious truth is that there is such a difference of belief in regard to it. Some claim one religion is true, some another; some reject religion altogether. What is one to do?
When Columbus affirmed that the world was round, some said it was impossible, some believed, some wondered. But the world's roundness did not depend on these beliefs. The world's roundness was a fact. Is religion a fact? If so, we must not be surprised that there are differences of opinion about it.
There is hardly a fact in history during the past two thousand years that has not been subject to various and often opposite opinions. Every war is the result of different judgments of a fact. The divergence of religious beliefs shows that religion at all events is a reality. Men do not contend over nothing.
Now this reality, this religion, is it something we can be certain about? May we know its truth, or must we be left groping? Why, if religion is vital, should not God make its truth clear beyond doubt? He has done so. Follow me, and you will see that God has done His part. The rest remains with us. God is the Light amidst darkness. If men will close out the light, He will let them, for He respects our liberty. He wants our free service. He will not force us.
Come with me, then, and see all He has done to establish His religion, to make it evident, to win you and me to loving service here and to eternal enjoyment hereafter. To those who receive Him He gives the power to become the children of God!
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From God and Myself, An Inquiry into the True Religion (©1917)
by Martin J Scott, S.J.
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