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Act of Faith |
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The Catechism of the Catholic Church organizes its presentation of faith under two headings, “I believe” and “we believe” (cf. 141-184). “I believe,” the formula used in the Apostles’ Creed, signifies the personal profession of the faith made individually by each believer, while “we believe,” the formula of the Nicene Creed, represents the faith of the Church as it is confessed by the bishops “or more generally by the liturgical assembly of believers” (167). One might say that the first formula emphasizes the personal freedom and responsibility that are involved in accepting and living according to God’s gift of faith, whereas the second calls attention to the fact that faith and the fullness of life to which faith leads are inextricably bound up with membership in the Church. “Believing in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent him for our salvation is necessary for obtaining that salvation”: so teaches the First Vatican Council (1869-1870) in its Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith, Dei Filius (Denzinger-Schönmetzer, 3012). Vatican I was repeating the teaching of the Council of Trent, a teaching that also is a central element of the long Tradition of the Church articulating divinely revealed truth as it is found in many places in Scripture (cf. Mk 16:16; Jn 3:36, 6:40, etc.). But, one might well ask, what of those sincere non-Christians who lead good lives? Is there no possibility of salvation for them? Indeed there is; yet even in the case of those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Jesus Christ and his teaching about the way of salvation, there must be at least an implicit faith in all that God has revealed, manifest in an honest openness to the truth as such a person is able to know it and in living according to that truth. There is nevertheless something mysterious in the fact that so many people apparently live and die without the fullness of faith. There can be no doubt that God has willed that everyone should live his entire life in the knowledge of God’s Revelation and with its assistance; nor is it acceptable to subscribe to the relativizing notion that, finally, all religions and indeed all ways of seeking a relationship of friendship with God are equally good. Ultimately, then, the fact that so many appear not to know and accept God’s Revelation can only be understood as an expression of the power of human freedom, which can accept or reject any truth, including the truth of Revelation itself. It is a sign also of the significance of human solidarity in both the natural and supernatural dimensions of life. For, to a significant degree, God has made individuals’ faith and even their salvation contingent upon the cooperation of other human beings with God in transmitting the faith to them. This is especially the case with parents and their children. The Freedom of Faith • Faith is a gift from God, but the act of faith is on our parts a free and personal act. It is “the free response of the human person to the initiative of God who reveals himself” (CCC 162). Hence it follows that no one should be forced to embrace or profess to embrace faith against his or her will. This has both individual and social consequences. For individual Christian evangelizers and apologists, for example, it is a reminder that, even though efforts to present and defend faith with rational arguments are necessary and desirable, still the gift of faith remains always God’s to give while the assent of faith remains always the free act of one’s hearers. On the social level, too, it is important to recognize that political society cannot be structured in such a way as to require its members to accept the truth of supernatural Revelation and live according to its supernatural demands. What can and should be required is that all live according to the humanly intelligible standards of the natural law pertaining to the pursuit of the common good and the good order of society itself: for instance, norms of behavior relevant to upholding and fostering the well-being of monogamous marriage. Neither by physical nor psychological coercion did Jesus himself ever attempt to force people to believe in him and his message, nor did he direct his disciples to do so. But, in addition to his example and his prayer, he did energetically and unremittingly preach his message in words, exhorting, correcting, challenging, and warning his hearers as he traveled throughout Palestine and beyond. Moreover, summarizing the entire mission of the Church until the end of time, he instructed his followers: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19-20); and he said: “He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mk 16:15). The prohibition against coercion in the area of faith should never be interpreted as a prohibition of preaching and teaching the truth of faith by every available means, with the intention of preparing the way for God’s gift of faith. As human beings freely accept the gift of faith, so also faith, once received, can be lost by free human choice. The First Letter to Timothy refers to this when it remarks: “By rejecting conscience, certain persons have made shipwreck of their faith” (1:19). Complacency, passivity, and neglect in matters of religious formation place faith at risk. It is necessary that we nourish our faith by study, especially study of the word of God, by prayer, and by striving for the perfection of charity in our lives. It is healthy to bear in mind the warning of John Henry Newman, at the conclusion of his famous essay On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine (1859), that the neglect of the religious education of the laity “in the educated classes will terminate in indifference, and in the poorer in superstition.” The Knowledge of Faith • Faith is knowledge of an all-consuming kind. Clearly it includes intellectual knowledge and assent to a body of truth, but both the way and the content of this knowing go much further than mere human knowledge. Different from the natural knowledge of God (which, as it were, looks at God “from the outside”), faith, along with the other supernatural gifts, draws man into the inner life of God and to an intimate personal encounter with him in his Trinitarian life. In this sense, then, faith already is the beginning of the eternal life (cf. CCC 163). Ultimately and essentially, the act of faith, made possible by the gifts of faith and grace, is a personal surrender to God in response to his Trinitarian surrender to us. The knowledge that is peculiar to faith arises within this supernatural union. Faith necessarily involves an assent of the intellect to all the truths revealed by God (cf. CCC 15), and especially to the truth about God himself as three Persons in one God. Central to faith also is faith in Jesus Christ, who is the fullness and completion of God’s self-revelation (cf. Vatican Council II, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum, 4). Not only does Christ reveal God to man, however, he also, as the Council points out, “fully reveals man to himself and brings to light his most high calling” (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, 22); by his example and word, furthermore, he shows man what he must do to respond to this calling. The type of assent and adherence involved in the act of faith is called obedience – “the obedience of faith” (cf. CCC 143). Although obedience also is involved in natural knowledge, in the sense that it calls for acceptance of something that is evident yet can be rejected, the very nature of the act of faith is obedience because the principal content of the faith is beyond natural intelligibility. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, quoting Vatican Council I, says: “What moves us to believe is not the fact that revealed truths appear as true and intelligible in the light of our natural reason: we believe ‘because of the authority of God himself who reveals them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived’ [Dei Filius 3; DS 3008]” (156). Faith thus is personal adherence of the whole person to God who reveals himself. It involves a total commitment to live according to the truths of faith in all aspects and moments of life. And while personal and total adherence to God also is the proper conclusion of a natural knowledge of God, the quality of the adherence made possible, and required, by faith is immeasurably greater than that understood by reason alone: The supernatural gifts make possible the most sublime union of the human person with each of the three Divine Persons. Unlike much natural knowledge, which may or may not be applicable to daily life, the knowledge of the faith by its very nature requires that it be put into practice in regard to all aspects of human activity. The Certainty of Faith • Because the content of faith is the truth revealed by God, faith has a unique certainty. Obviously, revealed truth can be obscure and mysterious: One need only think of truths of faith like the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Real Presence. Fully to penetrate and comprehend truths of this sort is beyond the capacities of human intellect. But in this circumstance there is no basis for uncertainty and doubt. Moreover, in our pilgrimage of faith, we have the assistance of the Church and her Magisterium. Thus Vatican II says of the Pope and bishops that they are “heralds of the faith, who draw new disciples to Christ; they are authentic teachers, that is, teachers endowed with the authority of Christ, who preach the faith to people assigned to them, the faith which is destined to inform their thinking and direct their conduct; and under the light of the Holy Spirit they make that faith shine forth, drawing from the storehouse of revelation new things and old (cf. Mt 13:52)” (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, 25).
Finally, a word about the relationship of the knowledge of faith and natural knowledge, the act of faith and reason. Plainly it is desirable to know and be able to explain the rational basis for the act of faith, in order to defend the gift of faith against attack – for example, against the charge that faith is irrational or unworthy of a mature and intelligent person – and to present truths of faith persuasively to others. This is the classic work of apologetics. It also is necessary that faith be adequately comprehensible so that its application to life may be clear. For such reasons, then, it is necessary to seek to grow in one’s understanding of the truths of faith. In this effort we can be confident that there can never be any real contradiction between true knowledge of the faith and true natural knowledge, scientific or otherwise, and that if apparent conflicts arise, they reflect either erroneous knowledge of the faith or erroneous natural knowledge. As Vatican Council I says: “Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth” (Dei Filius, 4).
See: Creed; Divine Revelation; Faith, Virtue of; Faith of the Church; Knowledge of God; Magisterium; Science and the Church. Suggested Readings: CCC 142-165. St. Francis de Sales, The Catholic Controversy, Pt. II. G. Grisez, The Way of the Lord Jesus, Vol. 2, Living a Christian Life, Ch. 1. J. Ratzinger, Introduction to Christianity. Lawrence A. Kutz |
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