248. Ninth Friday of Ordinary Time

Meditations no. 240 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Faith is the beginning of salvation.

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. In these words from the Second Letter to Timothy, St Paul teaches his disciple how to persevere in the faith he had received, for faith is the door to all supernatural gifts. And our Father echoed St Paul’s warning when he wrote to us: Fortes in fide, that is how I see you, my beloved daughters and sons: strong in faith, and, with this divine strength, bearing witness to your beliefs throughout the world, driven by the force of the Holy Spirit, in a renewal of Pentecost.

God has made himself known to mankind. Revelation is locutio Dei, God speaking in human words in order to teach us divine truths.

This revelation of himself and his loving designs for us culminated in the Word of God freely taking on our nature. Pope Paul the Sixth taught that Revelation is centred around Jesus Christ and his Word, and it has to be accepted through faith. We have to believe it: not just know what it says, but receive it in a vital, total act of our mind and heart, because it is he, Christ, who announces it. Because only he has “the words of eternal life”, as St Peter exclaimed after the difficult discourse at Capharnaum in which Christ announced the Eucharist.

Without faith it is impossible to please God. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Faith is absolutely necessary for salvation. For as long as we live on earth, it is through faith that we know God, supernaturally, but at the same time somewhat in darkness. Pope Paul the Sixth goes on to ask: But why should there be this darkness? That is the secret design of God: investigabiles viae eius, we cannot grasp his ways. God wants to test our faith during this life, and our salvation depends on whether we accept his design.

At the same time, faith is a light that lifts our understanding far beyond its natural capacity, and enables it to accept the highest truths revealed by God, which the human mind could never even have suspected. By the light of faith and by meditating on the word of God, we can always and everywhere recognize God, in whom “we live and move and have our being,” seek his Will in every event, see Christ in everyone whether he be a relative or a stranger, and make correct judgements about the true meaning and value of temporal things both in themselves and in their relation to man’s final goal.

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, a foretaste of the direct vision we will have in heaven. Faith is humanae salutis initium, the beginning of man’s salvation. As St Peter explained to the first Christians, you are guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

The basis of our faith can be demonstrated by reason.

The help and inspiration of grace are indispensable to faith, because nothing in the natural order can impel anyone to embrace the faith. We believe that what God has revealed is true, the Church states, not because the things we are told are self-evident, by the natural light of reason, but on the authority of God who reveals them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived.

Reason alone cannot bring us to faith, but it can show the basis upon which faith rests and shed light on its content. Reason is capable of discovering the fact that God exists, that the idea of his revelation is both possible and fitting, and that there are many well-founded reasons that confirm this.

Firstly, our Father explains, faith is not the result of a process of reasoning. Secondly, the human mind is capable of attaining to immutable necessary truths. The first statement is necessary to safeguard the supernatural character of the faith; and the second is equally necessary, to safeguard the objectivity of revealed truth, which presupposes the correct use of reason.

However, in our present state of fallen nature, it is quite difficult for us to know the truth by the use of natural reason, and especially the truths that refer to God and the moral law. And faith can also heal this wound left in us by original sin.

The Catholic faith has a solid rational base. We have powerful motives for believing: the miracles, which are historical facts reported in Scripture and Tradition; the fulfilling of the prophecies; and the Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. All of these are incontestable historical truths. And then there is the marvellous spreading and life of the Church, her perennial presence throughout time, and the loftiness of her teachings, which fulfil the highest aspirations of the human heart. The very experience of happiness and love, when we believe in the truth of revelation, is another thing that strengthens our belief. All of this, backed up by the witness of so many saints, tells us that we are on firm ground in believing. No one has ever believed in the teachings of Socrates to the point of dying for his beliefs, says St Justin; but for Christ, even labourers and uneducated people have set at nought the world’s opinion and the fear of death alike.

But, as we know, faith is a grace. We can desire salvation and desire to have faith, but in order to give full assent to the truth God reveals and say “I believe”, we need God’s grace. Only God can move us to do this. Consequently, for our faith to grow, we need to ask him, as the Apostles did: Adauge nobis fidem, increase our faith. Then we will be able to bear living witness to God and tell the society we live in, proclaim to the world far and near, that we believe in Jesus Christ and we want to follow him; and that when we do follow him we are not walking blindfold or in darkness, but in the light of his word, his example and his grace.

Knowing thoroughly our faith and the basis for it, so as to pass it on.

Brethren, St Paul tells us, we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

The Apostle warns us clearly. Difficulties to our faith come not only from the flesh and material realities. They also come from the devil, and from spiritual things gone wrong. Faith is under attack when confusion is sown in people’s minds to disorientate them, and sometimes this confusion is what dominates the culture of our times. These days it is not so much actual theological controversies which give rise to heresy and impiety, but errors spread by the profane sciences. The profane sciences cannot properly be opposed to supernatural truth, because the light of reason, which comes from God, cannot contradict the light of divine revelation. But now, moved by the same passions as in past times, men try to find a basis for their atheism or heresy especially in what are called the empirical sciences.

We have a great task to accomplish in the world of ideas, to break down people’s prejudices. We have to demonstrate the preliminaries of the faith, and prepare the ground by uprooting materialism and the false exaltation of man, so that the seed of God’s word can then take root in full, with all its consequences. It is our duty to make sure that all branches of knowledge can be true vehicles for explaining and defending the Catholic faith.

But defending and spreading the Catholic faith does not mean trying to drive it into people’s heads by means of endless arguments. Everyone has a different path to the truth, and it is God who sets the pace for them, taking their personal freedom as well as their passions into account. We must realize that the help we give them needs to fit in with our neighbours’ dispositions and with the workings of grace in their soul.

We cannot hammer faith into people’s minds and hearts by force. I’ve never liked expressions like “beating your opponent”, “winning an argument”, and so on, and in the context of an apostolic dialogue to bring a soul towards God, they strike me as totally inappropriate. Because a person who receives faith or grows in the life of grace always has a sense of victory. They haven’t been beaten; the love of God has won a victory in them. That should be our attitude: to teach people to love the truth by getting rid of the prejudices that hinder them from accepting it. And then pray and attract them by our example, because faith is lived out in our whole life, and it is a supernatural virtue that God gives the mind. We can obtain it by calling on God in humility, and by means of our good deeds; faith is something to ask for humbly, through prayer, upright behaviour and a clean way of life.

Invoke our Blessed Lady. Don’t stop asking her to be always our Mother - monstra te esse Matrem! - and to give us, along with her Son’s grace, good clear doctrine in our minds, and love and purity in our hearts, so that we can get to God and lead many souls to him.