Tuesday, May 23, 2017

6th Week of Easter, Wednesday, 24-05-17

Acts 17:15, 22 - 18:1 / John 16:12-15

Empiricism is a philosophical theory that all knowledge is based on experience derived from the senses.

It means that as long as we can touch it, see it, hear it, smell it or taste it, then we can know it or find out more about it.

Anything outside of the senses are not to be discussed as they don't appeal to the senses and hence, nothing can be known about it and no experience can be gained from it.

So it can be said that empiricism does not take into account the "sixth sense" or "intuition" as it cannot be measured or quantified.

How empiricism handles the question of faith depends on how much of it is considered acceptable.

In the 1st reading, when Paul stood before the whole Council of Areopagus and made the speech, what he said was acceptable to them until he talked about God raising a man from the dead.

At this mention of raising from the dead, some of them burst out laughing, while others seem to be interested in that.

As much as we profess that we believe in the Resurrection of Christ, yet we too may not really understand what it is truly about. We may not laugh at it but we have our questions that we are still search for the answers.

There may be much material on it but we will have to let the Spirit of truth lead us to a deeper understanding of the mystery of our faith.

What we cannot understand, let us not discard or reject or laugh at it. The time may come when the Spirit of truth will lead us to a leap of faith and then we will be enlightened.