"Do you believe in God?" people ask me.

"Do you believe in the Bible or the virgin birth or the one, holy catholic church?"

My answer is always the same: I believe in Christ. Where that Christ is found, there you will find my belief.

I believe the Bible when Christ is there and when Christ is not, I do not.

I believe in God when Christ is there and when Christ is not, I do not.

I believe in the catholic church, the virgin birth, the resurrection of the dead when and only when Christ is there.

Christ is not limited to the actions and activities of Christianity, paradoxical as that may seem. If Christ is the revelation of God’s love, as I believe Christ is, then Christ can show up at the most surprising of places. There you will find my belief.

A Bar Mitzvah is celebrated and the enormity of God’s love surrounds parents and child like a wondrous cloud. Christ is there and I believe.

A Hindu’s concern for all living creatures, her certainty that God suffers with all suffering creatures, proclaims Christ’s presence and I believe.

In an atheist’s service to others, in an adolescent’s search for truth, in a Mormon’s love for the family...there is Christ and there I believe.

I make claim to being a Christian not because I accept certain theological precepts or claim to understand particular dogma. I am a Christian because I place my allegiance in Christ.

If such a commitment places me curiously outside the very church that calls itself Christian, then so be it.

I cherish our traditions, this wondrous book we call the Holy Bible, the beauty of our liturgy, the sacredness of our holy meal...all of it means so much to me but only because it is there I can find the Christ and the Christ can find me.

In and of themselves they are nothing but pleasant events or occasionally interesting words.

With the Christ they become holy. They become symbols of what I really believe.