While I Breathe, I Hope
Richard R. Gaillardetz
What has stayed with me most from this book is its honesty.
Richard Gaillardetz spent much of his life studying, teaching, and writing about faith. Yet when he faced his own approaching death, the questions he had lived with as a theologian became deeply personal.
What moved me was his willingness to acknowledge the limits of his understanding. His years of theological reflection had not given him answers to everything. He could speak honestly about uncertainty, fear, and the mystery of dying without feeling compelled to resolve them.
During my years as an oncologist, I accompanied many people facing serious illness and death. I came to appreciate how little our explanations sometimes offer in the presence of suffering. There are moments when what matters most is simply our willingness to be present, without pretending to understand what we cannot.
I recognize something of that same willingness in Gaillardetz's writing.
Perhaps one of the gifts of faith is not that it provides certainty, but that it allows us to live honestly with what remains uncertain.
We do not have to understand everything in order to believe. We do not