Faith is the Substance

Details: 27 January 2012

Necessary Grace

Faith, supernatural faith, is absolutely necessary for salvation (Mark 16:16; John 3:36 & 6:40). Saint Ambrose said, "Faith is the firm foundation of all the virtues," and Saint Augustine reiterates this by saying."Faith is the foundation of all righteousness." Saint Thomas Aquinas states, "Faith is a habit of mind which begins eternal life inside of us, sanctifying grace which is a created share in the nature of God Himself " (2 Peter 1:4). The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, "Faith is both a theological virtue given by God as a grace and an obligation imposed on all human beings which flows from the first commandment of the Decalogue." While faith is necessary for a human being to be saved, it is not sufficient in and of itself. In order for it to be salvific, faith needs to be enveloped and thoroughly penetrated by the other two theological virtues of hope and love. These too, like faith, are supernatural, that is, far above our human nature’s ability to acquire and achieve on our own, and can only be had as free and undeserved gifts (graces) from God, which then must be freely preserved and exercised, under divine grace, by the one who receives them. The insufficiency of faith alone is clear from the teaching of Saint Paul, who even tells us in one place (1 Corinthians 13:2) that were we to possess a faith strong enough to ‘move mountains’, but lack love (charity), such a faith would be worthless toward our salvation.

Because God wills "all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:4), and yet all are not saved (e.g. Matthew 25:41-45), it must be that God in some way offers the grace of faith to every human being, with some of them accepting and conserving it and others sadly and tragically rejecting it. Robert Hugh Benson said, "Faith is a gift which can be given or withdrawn. It is something infused into us and not produced by us." The Catechism tells us that faith is a grace and also at the same time faith is a human act. It says, "When Saint Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:17; Galatians 1:15), Jesus declared to him that this revelation did not come from "flesh and blood", but "from my Father Who is in heaven". The Second Vatican Council declared "Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by Him. Before this faith can be exercised, man must have the grace of God to move and assist him. He must have the interior help of the Holy Spirit, Who moves the heart and converts it to God, Who opens the eyes of the mind and makes it easy for all to accept and believe the truth."

Human Act

The Catechism goes on to teach, "Believing is possible only by grace and the interior helps of the Holy Spirit. But, it is no less true that believing is an authentically human act. Trusting in God and cleaving to the truths He has revealed are contrary neither to human freedom nor to human reason. In faith the human intellect and will cooperate with divine grace. Saint Thomas Aquinas writes, "Believing is an act of the intellect assenting to the divine truth by command of the will moved by God through grace."

Blessed John Henry Newman said, "Faith then is not a conclusion from premises, but the result of an act of the will, following upon a conviction that to believe is a duty. The safeguard of faith is a right state of heart. This is it that gives it birth. It also disciplines it. This is what protects it from bigotry, credulity, and fanaticism. It is holiness, or dutifulness, or the new creation, or the spiritual mind, however we word it, which is the quickening and illuminating, principle of true faith, giving it eyes, hands, and feet."

All adult and reasonably intelligent Catholics should make certain that they themselves are adequately catechized and have a sufficient grasp of Catholic apologetics, so as to be able (as Saint Peter tells us) "to be always ready with an answer to everyone who asks a reason for the hope that is in you" (1 Peter 3:15). This catechetical and apologetic preparation should include a solid grasp of the reasons that constitute the "motives of credibility", namely, that the Catholic Faith is in accord with human reason and it is completely logical to believe, and that it is unreasonable and illogical not to believe. The "motives of credibility" can lead a person to the threshold of faith, making it easier for that person then to accept from God the precious and saving grace of faith itself. The Catechism lists as some of the "motives of credibility": "the miracles of Christ and the saints, prophecies, the Church’s growth and holiness and her fruitfulness and stability through the centuries." Blessed John Henry Newman said, "Right reason, that is, reason rightly exercised, leads the mind to the Catholic Faith and plants it there, and teaches in all its religious speculations to act under its guidance. Few minds in earnest can remain at ease without some sort of rational grounds for their religious beliefs."

Nevertheless, as Pope Saint Gregory the Great said, "If the work of God could be completely comprehended by human reason, it would no longer be wonderful, and faith would have no merit were reason able to provide proof." Blessed Cardinal Newman notes: "Life is not long enough for a religion of inferences. The natural man holds to divine truths merely as an opinion and not as a point of faith. Grace believes while reason does but opine. Grace gives certainty, while reason actually is never decided."

Catechism

The Catechism of the Catholic Church remarks, "Faith makes us taste in advance the light of the beatific vision, the goal of our journey here below. Then we shall see God face to face, as He is. So faith is already the beginning of eternal life." Saint Bernard of Clairvoix said, "When finally in heaven the veil shall have been utterly removed from the things of which we are now assured by faith, then the cup of our bliss will be overflowing." Now, however, "we walk by faith and not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7). We perceive God "as in a mirror dimly and only in part" (1 Corinthians 13:12). Even though enlightened by Him in Whom it believes, faith is often lived in darkness and can be put to the test. The world we live in often seems far from the one promised us by faith. Our experience of evil, suffering, injustice, and death seem to contradict the Good News." Still the words of Blessed Newman must be kept in mind: "Ten thousand difficulties do not make one (sinful) doubt." Many times we must make our own the tear-filled prayer which the father of the epileptic boy made to Jesus in the Gospel (Mark 9:23): "Lord, I do believe; help Thou my unbelief."