What the Ear Alone Believes
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Sight, taste, and touch in thee are each deceived;
The ear alone most safely is believed.
I believe all the Son of God has spoken,
Then truth’s own word there is no truer token.
These words come from Adoro Te, the Eucharistic hymn written by St. Thomas Aquinas.
Aquinas is speaking to Christ in the Eucharist—acknowledging that what appears to be bread is actually the Body of Christ. Our senses can’t perceive it. Only faith can.
But there’s something here for us in Advent too.
On Christmas Day, we won’t see the infant Jesus in the flesh. We’ll see a statue in a manger, maybe. We won’t hear His cries or feel the warmth of His skin.
But we hear His words. We hear His promises.
“I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
We can choose to believe that Christ has come—that He entered our world as a helpless child in Bethlehem. We can believe that He is here now, truly present in the Eucharist. And we can believe that one day, He will come again.
The ear alone most safely is believed. Not because seeing isn’t real, but because faith goes deeper than sight.
This Advent, what are we listening for?