One of the fundamental questions in our life is what do we believe. We ask oursleves, or others ask us, do we believe in God? Do we believe in the Trinitarian God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) of the Gospels? Do we believe there is life after death? Obviously the list goes on and on-- one could go through any of the Church's credal statements asking that question of belief time after time. Jesus today (Jn 12: 44-50) emphasizes that foundational nature of belief. He says: "I came into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me may not remain in darkness." Belief in Jesus, and in His words, is presented as critical to the eternal life promised by the Father. So, if belief is so important, we might talk a bit about what we mean by that term. One standard definition, found on Google, is that belief means an acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists. Ok, fair enough, but then we get the next question-- how is it that we accept that something is true or that it exists. Is it because there appears to be scientific proof of the particular statement? But how do we know that the purported science is genuine? Is it becaue we have seen something "with our own eyes"? But we all know that sometime our eyes deceive us. Is it because someone trustworthy has told us so? But how do we decide that someone is trustworthy with respect to any given factual assertion? I think in the end all belief comes down to a decison, a choice, an act of will. We have evidence or experience that pushes us one direction or another, but fundamentally we make a choice. That choice can be solidly based on observation or science-- like the belief that the world is round-- or it can be completely contradicted by observation and science-- like the belief that the earth is flat-- but either way people chose what to believe. Some people genuinely believed the earth was flat, long after all scientific evidence established the fact that the earth was round. But if we haven't made a choice-- if we're still assessing evidence or waiting for a bolt of lightening-- we find ourselves waivering between belief and disbelief. That's what seems to be happening to David Brooks, the New York Times columnist whose new book, "The Second Mountain," was reviewed in the Times' Book Review section on Sunday. The book is subtitled "The Quest for a Moral Life." Obviously in such a discussion the matter of religious belief comes up. According to the review, in the book Mr. Brooks asks himself the question: "Do I believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ?" His answer: "The simple, brutally honset answer is, 'It comes and goes'." Maybe that's what you get when you haven't made a choice, a commitment. In that situation your beliefs come and go, at the whim of the mode of thinking of the day or the persuasiveness of the last person to whom you talked. Actually, in that situation you don't believe anything at all-- neither that Jesus rose from the dead nor that He did not rise from the dead. I'm not denying that we all sometimes have crises in our faith, times when we struggle with belief. But at the end of the day the resolution of that struggle is a decision to believe, not a choice to throw up your hands and say "it comes and it goes." Living a moral life requires choices and commitments. So does living a life of faith. If we make the choice to believe in Jesus, as Jesus urges today, the moral choices become more obvious. Without that core belief, our moral choices are not firmly grounded. In fact, they can be grounded in little more than our own egos. Maybe that's why, according to the reviewer, Mr. Brooks' new book "quickly becomes repetitive and tendentious." That's a shame, because Mr. Brooks is usually so thoughtful and writes so well. Who knows, maybe Mr. Brooks will write a book about a "Third Mountain," this one based on living our one's Christian faith. That might really be interesting.