By his Revelation, God, from the fullness of his love, addresses men as his friends, and moves among them. The adequate response to this invitation is faith. By faith, man completely submits his intellect and his will to God.
To obey in faith is to submit freely to the word that has been heard, because its truth is guaranteed by God, who is Truth itself. Abraham is the model of such obedience offered us by Sacred Scripture and the Virgin Mary most perfectly embodies the obedience of faith. Throughout her life and until her last ordeal when Jesus her son died on the cross, Mary’s faith never wavered, and so the Church venerates in Mary the purest faith.
The Church never ceases to proclaim her faith in one only God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. For a Christian, believing in God cannot be separated from believing in the One he sent, his “beloved Son”, in whom the Father is “well pleased.”
Characteristics of Faith
Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him. Believing is possible only by grace and the interior helps of the Holy Spirit. The submission of our faith might nevertheless be in accordance with reason. God willed that external proofs of his Revelation should be joined to the internal helps of the Holy Spirit. The miracles of Christ and the saints, prophecies, the Church’s growth and holiness, and her fruitfulness and stability are ‘motives of credibility’.
Faith seeks understanding. It is intrinsic to faith that a believer desires to know better the One in whom he has put his faith. Yet, methodical research provided it is carried out in a truly scientific manner and does not override moral laws, can never conflict with the faith. Believing in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent him for our salvation is necessary for obtaining that salvation. Faith is an entirely free gift that God makes to man.
Even though enlightened by him in whom it believes, faith is often lived in darkness and can be put to the test. It is then we must turn to the witnesses of faith. Faith is a personal act. But faith is not an isolated act. The believer has received faith from others and should hand it on to others.
The Faith of the Church
It is the Church that believes first, and so bears, nourishes and sustains my faith. It is through the Church that we receive faith and new life in Christ by Baptism.
Salvation comes from God alone. We receive the life of faith through the Church.
The Church, guards “the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints”. She guards the memory of Christ’s words. It is she who from generation-to-generation hands on the apostles’ confession of faith.
Through the centuries, the Church has constantly confessed this one faith, received from the one Lord, transmitted by one Baptism, and grounded in the conviction that all people have only one God and Father. For though languages differ throughout the world, the content of the Tradition is one and the same.
Next week we will be exploring paragraphs 185 – 231, ‘The Creeds’.