Thank you, Father Berenger, for the welcome.

Today we're going to discuss the question of why it's not irrational to believe.

The evidentialist objection is very common to the rationality of faith.

The argument that rational beliefs require sufficient evidence, and Christian beliefs don't have sufficient evidence to support them, and so Christian beliefs are not rational.

Very, very common objection.

Let's make our way into the discussion of that objection and how we can reply to it by considering a simpler question that's maybe less hostile.

Why have faith?

A graduate student, who's a practicing Catholic, recently came to me and asked me this question. We were having a conversation, and she just said simply, why have faith? The question startled me. She was raising the question with goodwill and honest inquiry. There was no trace of hostility in her question and no opposition to faith

as such. She is, after all, practice in Catholic. It was just a simple request for clarification

and understanding. What startled me was that even though she was a graduate student, an intelligent woman in her mid-20s, and a devout practicing Catholic, she had never become consciously aware of some very basic points that in previous generations of better catechesis would have been obvious to people.

I told her that faith is a response to the word of God. It is an acceptance of what God has

revealed and spoken. She looked at me with a blank stare. What I was saying was obviously

news to her. So I went on to say more. I began to ask her about her experience of going to

Mass. What do we say at the end of the first and sometimes the second reading in each mass?

The lector says, the word of the Lord, and the people reply, thanks be to God.

In the Eastern rites of the church, the announcement they make is before the readings and it's different. What they say

is wisdom. Be attentive. The point that they make in the Eastern rites is that what is coming to us as

listeners of the scriptural reading is the wisdom of God himself. Whether one says

the Word of the Lord or wisdom be attentive, these simple liturgical acts affirm that God is

now present speaking to us. Not in the sense of giving us a new revelation, but in the sense of making the revelation

God delivered once and for all to the saints,

present, and active,

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