What is Faith?
This is a question we so rarely ask ourselves. When asked about what is faith many different answers were given but all had the same general idea. Fr. Michael Martine a local pastor and canon lawyer said "Belief in God trust in God. Knowing that we are dependent on God and knowing that God takes care of our needs", while someone else gave a much shorter answer "Reasonable trust". The catechism tells us "Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is truth itself. By faith "man freely commits his entire self to God." (CCC 1814). Faith is hard, we have the scriptures and there have been Miracles in our modern age, from "smaller" Eucharistic ones, to "larger" ones such as Padre Pio's gifts of bilocation and healing. Even with these signs, at the darker moments in our lives keeping faith often seems nearly impossible, but that is where hope comes in to help us out. If we have faith in a God who loves us so dearly that He came to this earth being fully human while still being fully divine to die on the cross for us, we may also have hope in His promise of salvation.
Our Catholic Christian faith creates a world wide community; the word Catholic itself means Universal. Maybe the greatest encouragement in faith is the examples of those who have gone before us. Looking at history and the lives of the saints and martyrs, especially the early martyrs gives some of the greatest examples. Would these men and women who walked on the earth at the time of Christ's death be willing to die for something they did not fully believe in? If Christ was just a hoax or a scam would the martyrs give up their lives and all the people that they loved? Looking at the world of today, Christian martyrdom has not ended, in the Middle East terrorist organizations create martyrs everyday. These groups do not care about denomination whether Catholic, Coptic, or what not, they only care that a person is a believer in Jesus Christ. Yet with the constant threat of death they keep their faith. The Tertullian, in the second century, said "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church", this shows that faith will flourish despite the threat of death. One may see additional evidence of this in the recent history of Poland, under the atheistic rule of the Soviets where religion was suppressed. Cardinal Wojtyła who would later become Saint John Paul the Great saw this first hand as the Archbishop of Kraków. Yet quite recently as a nation Poland crowned Christ as king in the presence of their president.
Here in the United States we are not facing the struggle of keeping the faith or death, which makes it all the easier for us. We do not have be afraid to boldly live the faith. Mother Teresa said "I know God won't give me anything I can not handle. I just wish He didn't trust me so much". Just take things one step at a time listen to Christ in the Gospels "do not be afraid", this simple phrase is said 365 times throughout the Old and New Testament once for everyday of the year.
Our Catholic Christian faith creates a world wide community; the word Catholic itself means Universal. Maybe the greatest encouragement in faith is the examples of those who have gone before us. Looking at history and the lives of the saints and martyrs, especially the early martyrs gives some of the greatest examples. Would these men and women who walked on the earth at the time of Christ's death be willing to die for something they did not fully believe in? If Christ was just a hoax or a scam would the martyrs give up their lives and all the people that they loved? Looking at the world of today, Christian martyrdom has not ended, in the Middle East terrorist organizations create martyrs everyday. These groups do not care about denomination whether Catholic, Coptic, or what not, they only care that a person is a believer in Jesus Christ. Yet with the constant threat of death they keep their faith. The Tertullian, in the second century, said "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church", this shows that faith will flourish despite the threat of death. One may see additional evidence of this in the recent history of Poland, under the atheistic rule of the Soviets where religion was suppressed. Cardinal Wojtyła who would later become Saint John Paul the Great saw this first hand as the Archbishop of Kraków. Yet quite recently as a nation Poland crowned Christ as king in the presence of their president.
Here in the United States we are not facing the struggle of keeping the faith or death, which makes it all the easier for us. We do not have be afraid to boldly live the faith. Mother Teresa said "I know God won't give me anything I can not handle. I just wish He didn't trust me so much". Just take things one step at a time listen to Christ in the Gospels "do not be afraid", this simple phrase is said 365 times throughout the Old and New Testament once for everyday of the year.
Comments
Post a Comment