The Mystery of Faith

Jesus provides and offers many assurances during his public ministry.  Just about all are positive in nature, such as “Come to me all you who are burdened and I will give you rest”, or “I am the way, the truth and the life”, and as we heard today, “I am the good shepherd; I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.”  These assurances are provided by Jesus to give us comfort, courage, and hope.  Life can be very difficult at times; we all go “through the ringer”, as they say, and Jesus understood this better than anyone else.  That is why he constantly offers messages of hope.  The question that remains is, do I really believe the promises Jesus has made?  Some other questions that come out of that one are what is faith, how do I get it, and do I deserve it?

The definition that Scripture provides in the letter to the Hebrews and one that has been used by the Church ever since is that “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen” (Heb 11:1, NABRE).  Basically, it means belief in something or someone.  Not just simply that I believe what you are telling me, but rather that I believe in you.  Think of the difference in those two statements:  I believe you and I believe in you.  If I only believe you, it is possible I may not believe you later.  But if I believe in you, I am invested in you, in your character, in your person.  Believing you is only the first step; believing in you solidifies the relationship. 

How does one obtain faith in which we not only believe what Jesus says but that we believe in him?  It is this type of faith that is a saving faith, one that gets us to heaven to live with God for eternity.  This question has been debated since the beginning of the Church and not just at the Protestant Reformation, though there it really built up steam, so to speak.   In chapter two of his letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul tells us that, “for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast.” (Eph 2:8, NABRE).  Initial saving grace is completely and fully a FREE gift; there is nothing one can do to earn it.  If it could be earned then Christ died for nothing, because there would be another way to be saved outside of Christ’s free gift.  

However, all gifts can be refused and even returned.  So, as Catholics, we do believe that God saves us, but we think in more familial terms then some Christians who believe in salvation as a “one moment in time” event, an event that is inerasable (i.e. once saved, always saved).  The Church understands that we are still needed in some way – that we cooperate in that initial gift, for we must say yes to it.  We feel God’s grace move us and we cry out “yes” to God.  These moments come as conversion experiences.  It may be that it was that “one moment in time” recognition of what God was doing in us and we repent and return to the Lord; it can be a series of events that lead to “that one moment”; and still, in some ways it is both a series of events and major ones as well.

Finally, no one deserves faith or even salvation, but since God is good and his love is endless and eternal he bestows it on us and aides us with his grace.  No one can earn the initial saving act of God, i.e. baptism or any of the sacraments and their effects in us.  Still, though, in God’s goodness he allows us to fully participate in all that he does for us.  We are not simply bystanders or robots.  God requires relationship filled with love, therefore we must respond to God’s grace, be it in the powerful moments of conversion as well as in the subtle ones.

Sometimes salvation and faith can be confusing (how does it happen exactly and how do I get it?  As human beings we can only go so far with the answers, because there is Divine mystery here as well.  I do not say this as a cop-out; rather, the mystery is there so that we may dwell on it, search, and delve into it deeply.  God knows that by our nature we are curious; we are searchers.  The mysteries of God help us to keep searching. 

I leave you with mystery as a final thought: the mystery of faith.  The mystery is at one in the same time a free gift of God, undeserved, and yet he allows our full cooperation and even works to make faith real, all the while God working in us and we too working, and always together in love.

Fr. John

Picture is that of St. Augustine at the moment of his profound conversion in the garden when he heard “Take up and read, take up and read.”