{"id":228935,"date":"2026-04-05T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fundacioncarf.org\/?p=228935"},"modified":"2026-03-31T15:45:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T13:45:21","slug":"un-ateo-bautizado-carta-busca-a-dios-evangelio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fundacioncarf.org\/en\/un-ateo-bautizado-carta-busca-a-dios-evangelio\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter to a baptized 'atheist'"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear... atheist:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allow me to write a few lines, after having read an article of yours published in a parish magazine. And allow me to express myself freely, after a good number of years of priestly work, and after years, during my university studies, of having lived in a \u201cGod-seeking atheism\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finding God by reading books<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I congratulate you for the sincerity with which you express yourself, and I recommend that you continue to maintain the deep desire to find God by reading books like the one you now have in your hands, which has already done a lot of good to a good number of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His words: \u00abI am an atheist as a curse and because I don't feel able to stop being one\u00bb, lead me to think that has not given up his determination to one day receive faith in Jesus Christ<\/strong>, God and true man (I presume you are baptized<\/a>). If so, I suggest you do not try to \u201crationalize\u201d the concept you may have made of the God you are looking for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He came to earth to be closer to us, to transmit to us the love of father and mother with which he created us, and to make it easier for us to meet him face to face. And to tell us that he will always accompany us in all the situations in which we do ourselves so much harm, because of our sins. For this reason I recommend that you read, step by step and without interruption, the Four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And read them asking Jesus to increase your Faith, asking the Holy Spirit to accompany you in the reading. And read, letting what you read enter your intelligence and your heart drop by drop: the Grace of God will do its work and will open the eyes of the spirit to end up making an Act of Faith in the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me ask you a question: Do you go into a church from time to time and approach the tabernacle and ask the Lord to give you the faith to believe that He is there?<\/strong> Do not expect an immediate response, a strong or dazzling feeling. The Lord speaks slowly, in silence, in half-light, so that we may use freedom and love, and continue to seek Him and speak with Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would like to add this prayer of a soldier in the second world war. He left it written before receiving the order to assault an enemy trench. After the assault, he died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ateo<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When man discovers God at the limit<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n

\"Listen, oh God! In my life I have never once spoken to You, but today I feel like having a party. Since I was a child I have always been told that You do not exist... And I, like an idiot, have believed it. I have never contemplated your works, but tonight I have seen from the crater of a pomegranate the sky full of stars and I have been fascinated by their brightness.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do not know, O God, if You will give me Your hand, but I tell You that You understand me... Is it not a strange thing that in the midst of a dreadful hell the light has appeared to me and I have discovered You? I have nothing more to say to you. I am happy, for I have met you.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At midnight we have to attack, but I'm not afraid, You see us. They have given the signal! I have to go. How nice it was with you!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to tell you, and You know it, that the battle will be hard: perhaps tonight I will come knocking at your door. And though I have not been your friend until now, when I come, will you let me in? But what is the matter with me? shall I cry? My God, look what has happened to me. Only now have I begun to see clearly... My God, I'm leaving... It will be hard to come back. Strange, now I'm not afraid of death!<\/em>\".<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"san<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The concrete path: prayer and reading of the Gospel<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Such a cry can spring from the heart of any man who, walking on earth, has ever raised his gaze to Heaven. With his groans, with his smiles, with his weeping at the portal of Bethlehem, the Lord continues to knock at the doors of the hearts of all his children, of all his daughters, in the whole world, whether they have heard of him, or whether they have never heard the name by which the Archangel called him: Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I accompany you with my prayers to the Blessed Virgin Mary.<\/strong>, I will not fail to greet her from time to time, and with a special remembrance at Holy Mass, and I remain at your disposal if you see fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Table of Contents<\/strong><\/p>