Tomas Halik in Melbourne

“When we are dreaming alone it is only a dream. When we are dreaming with others, it is the beginning of reality.”

- DOM HELDER CAMARA

Another interview with Czech priest and philosopher Tomas Halik. Previously featured here and here on this blog. 

Here’s an excerpt from the interview (Frank Brennan in a June 1^st 2011 public conversation with Tomas Halik held as part of the annual Helder Camara lecture series in Melbourne): 

“…(Fr) Frank Brennan (interviewer): We might move on from papal anecdotes to your most recent book, Patience with God. One of the quotes you have in the frontispiece of the book is; 'Patience with others is love, patience with self is hope, patience with God is faith.' Could you perhaps speak to us a little about the living of these virtues of faith, hope and love, particularly in your experience as a priest in the underground church?

Tomas Halik: I think it's [at] the heart of Christianity, these three virtues. The world is very ambivalent; it was always, but in our days extremely ambivalent. And I think also we believers are at time to time confronted with the silence of God, with the absence of God, with the secret of the hidden God. And I think some of the atheists are also seeing this absence of God. We have seen the same mystery from different perspective[s]. There are many possibilities to interpret this absence of God, to interpret it as a non-existence of God - God is dead, God doesn't exist - or as the hiddenness of God, as the dark night of faith.

The mystics have written much about the importance of the dark nights of the faith, of the experience of the inner desert, of the silence of God, and this experience is always the chance to go deeper and to be more matured in our faith, perhaps to lose the religious illusions and to be confronted with the naked faith. And I think there are not only those individual dark nights of the soul but also the collective ones. The 20th century was full of dark nights of the hidden God. Where was God in Auschwitz and the Holocaust? I think the right question is; where was man in the Holocaust? The rabbi of Britain, Jonathan Sacks, said that the right answer is that God was in his commandment 'You shall not kill'. And he gave us freedom, he gave us our commandments, so it is our responsibility. And I think when we are confronted with the hidden God, there are three possibilities how to answer this mystery, and they are faith, hope and love.

Frank Brennan: In the concluding chapter of your book, it is very clear by the time you get to that that you enjoy conversation with atheists, you also enjoy conversation with people of faith who are confronting the mystery of life and the existential angst. You state, 'Maybe the authenticity of faith demonstrates itself more through its patience than through its conscious content, that is how and what is capable of saying precisely about its subject.' Could you talk a little to us about this idea of patience rather than the conscious content of faith?

Tomas Halik: The hidden God is the challenge always. I'm interested in this human act of faith more than in the subject in doctrine. I think it's very important to see the faith as a dynamic process, as a process of maturity. And for me faith is life in the style of dialogue, listening and answering, giving a response, taking responsibility. There are many people, they have their life in the style of monologue, just to seek their own ideas, their own goals without listening [to] others. I think it's very sad to have this life as a monologue. And this life as a dialogue is for me the basis of the religious faith…” 

You can here the full interview here. Further, you will find the complete interview etc here (in three parts) on the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne website.