What answer would you expect, when you ask a priest “Does God exist?”

The same question was posed to a Priest I know and have come to respect immensely. The man is a philosopher, charmer, comedian and one of the wisest man I have ever spoken to. He first responded in a simple way “Existence of God is a very personal thing. It is dependent on the person.”

But the person insisted on the answer adding “So what do you think?” For which the man responded “If you want an answer take this, ‘The truth is God does not exist… And the belief is that he does.'”

The answer was shocking to me too. Here is a man who has dedicated his life to the service of God and he himself says that God does not exist. But he wasnt done, he added “Just like, ‘Everybody dies’ is the absolute truth and ‘We will live tomorrow’ is the belief.”

I have always admired people who could say a lot by actually saying very little. What this man told me, stuck to me… I kept thinking about it for days. The beauty and the knowledge in those few lines astounded me.

Ps: The incident was narrated to me and I have chosen to retell it with my understanding.