Flannery O'Connor on Faith and Doubt

"What people don't realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross. It is murch harder to believe than to not believe." -Flannery O'Connor in The Habit of Being

At the heart of the Christian Faith is the claim that a Jew from Nazareth, God the Son, died a brutal and horrible death and was raised, is alive and Lord of all creation. That is a lot to chew on. I think that is why we get 13+ weeks (Lent and the Season of Easter) to dwell on the mystery of the Passion and the Resurrection.

I like the way O'Connor puts it: Faith is not a big electric blanket but the Cross. Faith is not "what warms me up" or even "what fills me up" (though faith does have a habit of doing the latter--but often in the least-expected ways), faith is always centered and fixed on the Cross of Christ, "upon which was hung the salvation of the world." Like God calling Moses out of the burning bush, God beckons us still today: "Look here!" +