Lifetime
In a dark sea of centuries wherein nothing seemed to flow, a lifetime was only a brief eddy, even for the man who lived it. There was a tedium of repeated days and repeated seasons; then there were aches and pains, and finally Extreme Unction.
And a moment of blackness at the end – or at the beginning, rather.
For then the small shivering soul who had endured the tedium, endured it badly or well, would find itself in a place of light, find itself absorbed in the burning gaze of infinitely compassionate eyes as it stood before the Just One. It would be hard to believe differently.
A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959) by Walter Miller
The Great Mystery. I think most of us rely on our gut feeling, our intuition, to live at peace with the Big Questions. I think I hold both possibilities (was Jesus Christ real or not?) simultaneously in my heart.
I believe He is real, at least historically. A relic called the Sudarium of Oviedo is a bloodstained cloth in Spain dating back to the 1st century. Its bloodstains align with those on the Shroud of Turin in pattern, blood type (AB), and pollen.