The leap of faith is a leap into consciousness – a leap into what we already know, not a blind leap into the irrational.
The materialist (the aesthetic, as Kierkegaard used the term) is a sadly unconscious person.
The ethical person becomes conscious by his engagement in the finite and its realities, but, like finitude, his consciousness is limited.
Only when the humble acknowledgement that there are things of which we know but that we cannot grasp, only the acceptance of these realities, only this “leap of faith” makes it possible for us to be fully (though certainly not infinitely) conscious.
Until we take this leap we are denying what is most distinctly ourselves, what makes self-awareness possible, what rightly places us in the cosmos, and what enables sound judgment.
Until by faith we leap into ourselves we are incapable of wisdom, justice, freedom, or real love.
This is why great art is always deeply mystical and why in it we are always conscious of a wound.
We know that we and things have meaning.
We know that we are conscious.
We know that something orders all things and we know we ought to be sensitive and sensible to the Image of glory.
We know we are missing something. We express that knowledge in our pursuits, each of which demonstrates a lack.
We need to see all things as temple and to see all acts as liturgy and eucharist. Then we can leap, by faith, not into the unknown, but into the necessary and the transcendent.
