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SEPTEMBER 20, 2007
The Virtue of Faith
Over the past few months in my column in The Catholic Sun, I have written about the cardinal virtues, i.e. about prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance. All other human virtues derive from these four, which aid us in our efforts “to act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly with our God” (Mc 6:8).
Now and in the weeks ahead, I invite us to look at the theological virtues: faith, hope and love. Of these, the Catechism of the Catholic Church says (# 1813): “They inform and give life to all the moral virtues. They are infused by God into the souls of the faithful to make them capable of acting as His children and of meriting eternal life. They are the pledge of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the faculties of the human being.”
The theological virtues and the cardinal virtues are closely related to each other. One cannot achieve holiness without cultivating them all. But the most fundamental of them all is faith. It is indispensable for hope and charity, as well as for the human virtues. It opens the way to a life-giving relationship with God.
‘Blessed are you who believed’
When the expecting mothers of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth met in the hill country of Judea 2000 years ago, the older of them, Elizabeth, spoke of the blessings God had bestowed on her younger relative. Above all, she highlighted the gift of Mary’s faith (Lk 1:45), “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”
Faith in God, as Elizabeth indicates, is a precious treasure, a pearl of great price worth selling all one has to obtain it. This is true, not only for Mary but for us all.
A believer freely surrenders to the Lord in response to His invitation to participate in His own divine life. To make this decision of faith is to begin to orient one’s whole life according to the teachings and promises of God. When we do so, we discover that God leads us beyond the experiences and horizons of this created world to the marvels of a world that will never end.
In this fallen world, however, twisted and darkened as it is by sin, every believer encounters difficulties. Some of these stem from the limitations of the human mind, others from doubts and fears of the heart, some from testings of the devil, and still others from challenges of the contemporary society such as radical secularism or scandalous activity by members of the Church. God allows us to face these difficulties, not to weaken or endanger our faith, but to provide opportunities for it to mature and grow strong.
‘I trust in You’: Faith as decision
There are three main elements of faith, which harmoniously work together in a believer: trust, assent and obedience. Of these, trust was given the greatest emphasis in the Old Testament, and Abraham is its prototype. In fact, still today in the Roman Canon of the Mass, we remember the example of “Abraham, our father in faith.” Believers down through the ages, and still today, are inspired by his trusting faith. The Book of Sirach says of him (44:19-20), “Abraham, father of many peoples, kept his glory without stain; He observed the precepts of the Most High, and entered into an agreement with Him; in his own flesh he incised the ordinance, and when tested he was found loyal.”
People of faith, following the example of Abraham, have complete confidence in God, even when they do not understand (Cf. Heb 11:8). Faith, after all, is a religious act, an act of adoration and an act of trust in God’s promises. Why such confidence? Because of who God is, because of His goodness and mercy, His wisdom and power, His truthfulness and fidelity.
“Belief can never be half-hearted,” says Joseph Pieper (“Faith, Hope, Love,” p. 35). It goes beyond thinking that some teaching or someone is interesting, clever, ingenious or magnificent. It is more than a conclusion drawn from premises. Faith rests on an act of the will. I decide that I shall trust God. In order to trust so profoundly, faith needs the assistance of the theological virtue of love. John Henry Newman states quite simply in his Oxford University Sermons (p. 236), “We believe because we love.” St. Faustina, with similar devotion, declares, “Jesus, I trust in You.”
Assent to the Truth: God reveals Himself to us
“Faith is first of all a personal adherence of man to God. At the same time, and inseparably, it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed… It is right and just to entrust oneself wholly to God and to believe absolutely what He says. It would be futile and false to place such faith in a creature.” With these words, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (#150) shows the close connection between trust and assent in the virtue of faith. They are intimately interwoven in this profoundly human act in which our human intellect and will cooperate with God’s grace.
To believe in God means to assent to all that God reveals as true. The assent of faith relies on God’s infinite knowledge, not on human wisdom. It depends on the truthfulness of God, believing firmly that God cannot tell lies and will not deceive. It is easy to see why Christian believers, therefore, find such consolation in the words of Jesus (Jn 8:12), “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Although a human act, the assent of faith is only possible through the grace of the Holy Spirit. We cannot make an act of faith on the basis of human reasoning alone. As Vatican I affirmed (Dei Filius, #3), we believe “because of the authority of God Himself who reveals them [i.e. the revealed truths], who can neither deceive nor be deceived.”
Our assent of faith goes beyond words and formulas even though we are helped by them to express what we believe and to transmit it to others. It is certainly right that we should profess together the Creed when we gather for the Sunday Eucharist since this strengthens our faith and assists us in celebrating it together. But we do well to remember the words of St. Thomas Aquinas (STh II-II, 1, 2, ad 2), “The believer’s act [of faith] does not terminate in the propositions, but in the realities [which they express].” The act of faith is not merely an assent to the propositions about God, but also an assent to the reality of God Himself.
Obedience of faith: Faith in action
Faith is far more than a pious wish. It commits us to obedience and action (Cf. Rom 1:5). Faith moves us to pray, to adore, and to serve others. For St. Paul, faith is a whole new way of being that so transforms his life that he writes (Gal 2:20), “yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given Himself up for me.”
St. James strongly emphasizes the need for faith to be put into practice when he writes (2:14ff), “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them ‘Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,’ but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? …For just as a body without a spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.”
Faith, then, includes personal trust in God, assent to the truth that He reveals, and obedience or commitment to action. In addition to these essential elements of faith, in the next article, I shall look at additional properties of this fundamental theological virtue.
For further reading:
-- Catechism of the Catholic Church, #142-184, #1814-1816
-- Joseph Pieper, “Faith, Hope, Love,” pp. 13-86
-- Benedict Ashley, OP, “Living the Truth in Love,” pp. 41-88
-- Avery Dulles, SJ, “The Assurance of Things Hoped For”
Copyright 2007 The Catholic Sun.
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