THE FAITH OF ANOTHER
In William Gibson’s autobiographical Mass For The Dead, he relates how, after his mother’s death, he yearned for the faith that had strengthened her during her remarkable life and upheld her during her courageous dying. So he took his mother’s gold-rimmed glasses, her faded and well-worn prayer book and sat in her favorite chair. He opened the prayer book because he wanted to hear what she had read. He put on her glasses because he wanted to see what she had seen. He sat in her place of prayer and devotion because he wanted to feel what she had felt, to experience what had so deeply centered and empowered her. But nothing happened. It did not work. Don Shelby comments: “It never does. We cannot claim another person’s faith for our own. The example and contagion of another person’s faith for our own. The example and contagion of commitment in other persons may inspire and nurture us, but we cannot…
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