Aug 24 Sat
What is it to take a leap of faith?
There is a novel written by Graham Greene in 1951. The story is set in London during and after the Second World War, focusing on the affair between Maurice Bendrix and Sarah Miles. Sarah is married to Henry Miles, an influential English civil servant. Eventually, Sarah decides to end the affair.
Two years after their breakup, Bendrix discovers the reason for Sarah's decision while reading her diary. This revelation marks a significant turning point in the story, shedding light on Sarah's complex character.
It is revealed that during their affair, a bomb explodes in Bendrix's apartment. In that moment of anguish, Sarah makes a promise to God: If He saves him, she promises to end the illicit relationship, if He spares Bendrix's life.
Miraculously, Bendrix survives the explosion, although the damage to his apartment is extensive. Neither Bendrix nor Sarah were believers, but Sarah's instinct to pray for her lover's life is undeniable: "I love him and I will do anything as long as You allow him to live. I will say it very slowly: I will leave him forever if You allow him to live, and give him a chance...And then he appeared at the door; he was alive, and I thought: Now begins the agony of having to live without him."
Sarah struggles to keep her promise, torn between her love for Bendrix and her commitment to God. She attends talks by a rationalist, hoping to convince herself that God does not exist, and that there is no afterlife – that all that matters is living in the present. However, instead of erasing her faith, these encounters strengthen it. Sarah decides to convert to Catholicism and discovers the love, compassion, and suffering of God: "You could have killed us with happiness, but you preferred that we reach You through pain." The moral aspect of human existence becomes more apparent to her, urging her to strive for goodness and avoid evil.
Unfortunately, Sarah dies prematurely, leaving Bendrix unable to come to terms with her passing. He begins to sense the presence of God in his own life. "Because if this God exists," he thinks, "and if even you, Sarah – with your desires, infidelity, and small lies – could change so much, then perhaps we could all become saints by taking the same leap you did. That is something He can ask of each one of us, to take that leap. Only, I don't want to take it."
Who knows, Bendrix? Faith is a gift, a present. God continues to knock on the door of every person's heart. He possesses the patience, love, and loyalty that we often lack. He created us to be free and never stops extending His hand to us, beckoning us to take that leap throughout our lives.
To take that leap of faith is to embark on a lifelong journey.
Faith comes alive when it results in practical outcomes - when it guides Christians in making specific choices and decisions that shape their actual lives.
Otherwise, faith is dead, because it remains like an abstract lesson or a set of moral traditions that hold no inherent value.
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