Parallel Lives: With Faith and Without, by David G Bonagura, Jr.

By David G Bonagura, Jr., The Catholic Thing, August 29, 2025

David G. Bonagura, Jr. is the author, most recently, of  100 Tough Questions for Catholics: Common Obstacles to Faith Today, and the translator of Jerome’s Tears: Letters to Friends in Mourning. An adjunct professor at St. Joseph’s Seminary and Catholic International University, he serves as the religion editor of The University Bookman, a review of books founded in 1960 by Russell Kirk. His personal website is here.

Consider the parallel lives of John and Bill, who each have three children, reside in the suburbs, and commute to the city to work. John is agnostic and indifferent to things religious. Bill is a practicing Catholic; he attends Mass each Sunday and prays daily.

The two do essentially the same things each day. Is there a substantive difference between their lives, given their faith – or lack of it?

On Monday, both get caught in traffic. En route, John is listening to the news, Bill to the Bible in a Year Podcast. They both arrive late and flustered. Bill, having heard Matthew 11 recited in the car, prays that God will make light the burdens that come with being late for work.

At their desks, they open their emails. Each receives a note from his boss assigning an odious task. Each is aggravated. Bill asks God why He is testing him. Then, though still unsettled, he stammers a silent, “Thy will be done,” and digs in. …

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