Dear Lu,
Your note about the religious studies classes you are taking intrigued me. I have always been interested in great intellectuals who try to reduce man’s thirst for God to neat sociological formulas. Do keep sending me articles and updates; I’ll look forward to following along.
As for yourself, I issue a humble, avuncular warning. Don’t let all the ideas that you bat around from 9 to 9 every day interfere with your personal, heart-to-heart relationship with Christ. He is more than an idea, you know – he is a person. A living person, whose friendship alone will give true and lasting meaning to your life. You need to make a constant and concerted effort to keep that in mind, so you don’t succumb to the temptation of intellectual pride – thinking that your own brilliance is enough light for your journey into eternity.
Today’s saint could be a big help for you. He was a medical doctor, a writer, and an artist (probably from Greece, maybe from Antioch in Turkey), so he had an avid mind and a sensitive heart. God set him aside as one of the four Evangelists, the only four people in the history of the world chosen to record (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) the life and words of Jesus Christ, God become man. He was also entrusted with giving us the inspired narration of the very first days of the Church. His Gospel and his “appendix” to the Gospel, the Acts of the Apostles, almost form a complete picture of Christian revelation. In their pages, you will find the person of Jesus Christ and the living faith of the Church masterfully described. If you take some time to dip into them every day, it will help you keep your faith fresh (it will help even more if you dip into them while making a visit to our Lord himself in the Blessed Sacrament – nothing like the Real Thing to counteract vapid ideologies like the ones you mention in the note).
Since you’re planning on going on to get your PhD, you might even want to make St Luke into a kind of personal patron – he is the official patron of “doctors,” after all (strictly speaking, medical doctors). May he help you stay humble and simple (remember, the Kingdom of God belongs to the childlike), even as you scale the dizzying heights of intellectual achievement.
God bless,
Uncle Eddy
