God is greater than our minds and hearts. We don’t get to measure someone else’s hunger or faith. By Father Neil Pezzulo

I am in the process of moving, which is not such a big deal; about 20% of Americans move every five years or so. But one of the advantages of moving is that this is an opportunity to both downsize and reminisce when I encounter something I have not seen in a while.

While packing up I found this wonderful quote from Henri Nouwen; oddly, I cannot remember why I saved it, but here it is speaking directly to my heart as I am packing up.

“God is greater than our minds and greater than our hearts, and just as we have to avoid the temptation of adapting God to our finite small concepts, we have to avoid adapting God to our limited small feelings.”

Welcome the stranger

For a couple of days, I carried this quote close to my heart. I am unsure why this stayed with me until one morning it finally began to make sense.

I was at a place where I have never been, a church, a place where I am a stranger. I did not know them, and they did not know me.

As I was waiting to meet the pastor, another person came into the office and asked for some food. I was sitting there pretending I was not eavesdropping on the conversation, but I could not help myself.

Without repeating the conversation, I was both shocked and embarrassed over how this person—this hungry person—was received. I began to wonder if the church secretary had ever read Matthew 25. When did we see you hungry and not feed you?

Based on what I was seeing and hearing, I remained doubtful; however, I was not there to judge “as we have to avoid the temptation of adapting God to our finite small concepts.”

I was hungry and you judged me and my hunger.

Personal experiences

How do we know how hungry someone else is? Or how thirsty? How do we appreciate how happy or how well-rested someone may be?

How do we tell someone their condition or state of being is less valid than our own? If we limit God to our own limited understanding, or worse yet, our own limited politics, we can easily fall into the sin of judging.

We have no choice but to believe people when they talk about what or how they feel. We must take them at their word when discussing such subjective, extremely personal subjects.

What is a regular occurrence for some is monumental for others. My college roommate continued his education and achieved a graduate degree from an Ivy League school in New England. His wife, also educated at the same school, has suffered many physical, emotional, and spiritual setbacks over the years.

For her, some days getting out of bed, brushing her teeth, and combing her hair is as much of an accomplishment as obtaining graduate degrees from an Ivy League college. Who am I to judge? I am, as a follower of Christ, called to respect, honor, and cherish her as a fellow Christian. In all our humanity, we are quick to judge.

Faith is real

Our faith is emotional; it does not come from intellectual exercise, it comes from a personal encounter with Christ. Simply because we do not share the same emotions or never had this experience does not make it any less real.

The same emotions can be felt by different people but in different ways, with different intensities and different results. But again, no less real. Just like the feeling of hunger or a headache.

Our faith is subjective. Faith can’t be measured. But someone’s relationship with their Creator is as real as temperature, hunger, pain, pleasure, happiness, or sadness. “God is greater than our minds and greater than our hearts.”

It takes an arrogance too strong and empathy too weak to compel someone to dismiss the condition of another. Perhaps it’s simply ignorance that empowers people to scorn the needs or feelings or beliefs of others. This is why it’s so dangerous to claim to measure someone else’s faith. How do we judge how strong or weak their faith may be? Or question its existence at all?

Despite the impossibility of adequately quantifying faith, sadness, hunger, or fatigue, people still try. They pass judgments based on their own experiences while ignoring the experiences of others. When they ignore others, they expect their own views to be accepted. And ironically, the only way their views can be accepted is by faith.

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