Based on Catechism of the
Catholic Church Paragraphs 153-165
What is Faith?
Faith is
trust. Faith is belief.
Hebrews 11:1 tells
us that it is the evidence of things not yet seen.
We use faith in
the human sense all the time:
-
when a
couple marries they trust each other enough to commit to each other. The trust the word and promise of the other.
-
When
we sit on a chair we trust that it will hold us.
-
When
we eat food in a restaurant we have faith it is not poisoned etc..
Without this basic
faith we would not be able to function, to have confidence in things.
Faith in the
divine sense is similar to that. When we
hear the Gospel something stirs in our hearts to believe it. To trust in its veracity, to have confidence
in its reliability.
Abraham
Biblically
speaking the father of all who believe in God is Abraham. When we look at his life, his example lays a
foundation upon which all other believers stand. In fact, all the great monotheistic faiths
look to Abraham as their example.
By a special grace
or gift of God Abraham comes to realize that God is not found in the idols of
his people. By grace and by using his
reasoning he knows that God who made heaven and earth is beyond the scope of
our comprehension and at the same time is knowable.
Faith enabled
Abraham to leave his homeland to go to a new land, to trust in God’s promise,
even in times when the promise seemed far away.
-thus faith is a
grace CCC 153
-a fully human act
CCC 154
-in accord with
human reason CCC 155-156
-faith has a
certitude CCC 157
Mary
One of my favorite
and one of the most beautiful stories in the Bible is the Annunciation in the
Gospel of Luke. It is such an example of
faith, of trust in God’s will and providence.
When the Angel
tells her she will bear a son she asks, “How can this be?”
Mary’s question
was not that of a skeptic but that of seeking to better understand what was
happening. Our faith is not based on a
random collection of unrelated propositions grounded in nothing. Mary uses her reasoning to better develop
her faith in God.
All of us would
gain so much by asking questions so we too an deepen our faith. As the CCC puts it: “the grace of faith opens
the eyes of your hearts to a lively understanding of the contents of
Revelation.” CCC 158
The Annunciation
also brings us to the question of the relationship between faith and
science. The idea of a virginal
conception sound ridiculous to a “rational” mind. The miraculous and the scientific are both
part of God’s plan as “ the things of the world and the things of faith derive
from the same God.” CCC 159 The authentically miraculous are not myths
on the one hand nor is the scientific opposed to belief in God.
When speaking of
Mary we also think of the notion of Free Will.
All of the things God did concerning Our Lady in no way took away her
freedom.
Mary’s “yes” was
free, full and faithful.
A Great Cloud of Witnesses
“Without faith it
is impossible to please God” (Hebrews
11:6)
One of my favorite
verses in the Bible comes from Sirach 2: 11
“Look at the
generations of old and see: who ever trusted in the Lord and put to shame?”
The Bible
challenges us – even dares us – to find anyone who was disappointed by the
Lord. Oh they have been persecuted, put
to death, endured trials… but no saints of the Old Testament, New Testament and
through the ages of the Church would ever say that the Lord has abandoned them.
Faith is what
saves us. Not by itself, for on its own
it isn’t faith until it leads to action.
Authentic faith helps us walk through the trials and storms of life and
still believe. This is why familiarizing
ourselves with the great saints can encourage us today.
If our relationship
with God is like a marriage, then we must stick through it in good times and in
bad. St Paul
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