Understanding the Faith
(Excerpted by Prof. W. Nierras, Ph.D from the Catechism for Filipino Catholics, 6 August 2021)
I. FAITH IN HUMAN RELATIONS
119. Faith in its broadest sense is a central reality in Filipino life. It is an everyday “natural” factor in all our human relationships and daily actions. For example, in accepting the word of others, we already show our faith (paniniwala) in them. We readily obey the directions of those over us, at home, at work, in our communities (pagsunod). We even entrust ourselves and our welfare to others: doctors, teachers, judges, civic leaders, not to mention cooks, jeepney drivers, etc. Without such basic human faith which includes believing acceptance, obedient action and personal entrusting, human life would be impossible. Faith as a human reality, therefore, is central to our daily lives. 120. For Filipinos, this can be seen most clearly in our family life and friendships. We grow up, nurtured and supported by the trust, love and fidelity of our family. We mature through a process of forming personal friendships, first as children, then as teenagers, finally as adults. But in each case, there is a gradual revelation of our own inner self to our friend, and a free acceptance of our friend’s self-revelation. If this friendship is to grow and mature, it must include a “turning toward” the other, a conversion. We acknowledge our need and trust in the other’s friendship by listening to and identifying with our friend. 121. Filipinos do all this spontaneously, naturally, but not without difficulty. Sometimes we turn away, or refuse to listen, or are rejected by the other. But genuine friendships create mutual loving knowledge of each other. In them we experience something that liberates us from our own narrowness, and opens us to fuller life and love. We realize that friendship freely offered us by another, also demands our free response. It is a response that is never just one act, but a long process of growing intimacy with our friend. Inevitably, others among our families and associates are eventually involved. Especially God. II. FAITH IN GOD 122. Faith in God is grounded in God’s own revelation through his words and deeds in salvation history. It is confirmed by the many reasons for believing that have been worked out throughout the centuries, responding to the biblical challenge: “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope” (1 Pt 3:15). A. Characteristics of Christian Faith Total and Absolute 123. Already the Old Testament contrasted faith “in man in whom there is no salvation” with faith in “the Lord who made heaven and earth . . . who shall reign forever” (cf. Ps 146:3,5-6,10; Jer 17:5-8). Only Faith in God calls for a total and absolute adherence (cf. CCC 150). Christ himself provides, especially in his Passion, Death and Resurrection, the best example of this total and absolute commitment to God. Trinitarian 124. For us Christians, Faith is our adherence to the Triune God revealed through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is our friendship with Christ and through Christ with the Father, in their Holy Spirit. Through Christ’s witness to his Father in his teaching, preaching, miracles, and especially in his Passion, Death and Resurrection, we come to believe in Christ our Savior, in the Father, and in the Holy Spirit sent into our hearts. Our Faith as Catholics, then, consists in our personal conviction and belief in God our Father, revealed by Jesus Christ, His own divine Son-made-man, and their presence to us through the Holy Spirit, in the Church (cf. PCP II 64; CCC 151-52). |
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Loving, Maturing and Missionary
125. Our Christian Faith is truly life-giving and mature only through love, for “the man without love has known nothing of God, for God is love” (1 Jn 4:8). And to be Christian, this love must be inseparably love of God and love of neighbor, like Christ’s. It thus impels us to mission, to evangelize, by bringing others the Good News (cf. 1 Cor 9:16). Such a missionary spirit is the test of authentic Faith because it is unthinkable that a person should believe in Christ’s Word and Kingdom without bearing witness and proclaiming it in his turn (cf. EN 24; PCP II 67-71, 402). This means we are all called to share in Christ’s own three-fold mission as priest, prophet and king (cf. PCP II 116- 21; LG 10-13).
Informed and Communitarian
126. PCP II insists that Catholic Faith must be “informed,” that is “believing Jesus’ words, and accepting his teachings, trusting that he has “the words of eternal life” (cf. Jn 6:68; NCDP 147). It must be “communitarian” since it is the Church that transmits to us Christ’s revelation through Sacred Scripture and its living Tradition, and alone makes possible for us an adequate faith-response (cf. PCP II 65).
Inculturated
127. This Catholic faith in God and in Jesus Christ is never separated from the typical Filipino faith in family and friends. On the one hand, we live out our faith in God precisely in our daily relationships with family, friends, fellow workers, etc. On the other hand, each of these is radically affected by our Catholic Faith in God our Father, in Jesus Christ His only begotten Son, our Savior, and in their Holy Spirit dwelling within us in grace. “This is how all will know you for my disciples: your love for one another” (Jn 13:35; cf. PCP II 72-73, 162, 202-11).
B. The Three Essential Dimensions of Faith
128. Vatican II explains this faith-response as follows: “By faith man freely commits his entire self to God, making ‘the full submission of his intellect and will to God who reveals,’ and willingly assenting to the Revelation given by Him” (DV 5). Christian Faith, then, touches every part of us: our minds (believing), our wills (doing), and our hearts (trusting). Let us briefly examine each aspect in turn.
Believing
129. Faith involves our basic convictions as Christians. “For if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead; you will be saved” (Rom 10:9). John sums up his Gospel with: “These things have been recorded to help you believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, so that through this faith you may have life in his name” (Jn 20: 31). Faith, then, is knowing, but not mere “head knowledge” of some abstract truths. It is like the deep knowledge we have of our parents, or of anyone we love dearly. Christian Faith, then, is personal knowledge of Jesus Christ as “my Lord and my God” (Jn 20:28). Christ solemnly assures each of us: “Here I stand knocking at the door. If anyone hears me calling and opens the door, I will enter his house, and have supper with him, and he with me” (Rv 3:20).
Doing
130. But besides believing, faith is also doing. As St. James writes: “My brothers, what good is it to profess faith without practicing it?” (Jas 2:14). Christ himself taught: “None of those who cry out ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of God, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Mt 7:21). Faith, then, is a commitment to follow (obey) God’s will for us. This we see exemplified in Mary’s “I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be done to me as you say” (Lk 1:38). PCP II brings out this “doing” dimension of faith as “witnessing” through “loving service” of our needy neighbors. In our concrete situation, particularly urgent is the call for: 1) deeds of justice and love; and 2) for protecting and caring for our endangered earth’s environment (cf. PCP II 78-80).
131. Of course, we realize that we often do not do what we affirm in faith. But this awareness of our failures emphasizes all the more the essential place of behavior in authentic Christian Faith. It also makes us more conscious of our need for Christ’s Spirit to live out our faith in our actions. “For apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5). “Before this faith can be exercised, man must have the grace of God to move and assist him; he must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God” (DV 5).
Entrusting/Worshipping
132. Beyond believing and doing, faith is also entrusting oneself into God’s hands. Abraham, our father in faith, at God’s command left everything to set out for a foreign land. Against all human odds Moses trusted Yahweh to free the Hebrews from their slavery in Egypt. In the New Testament, Jesus worked signs and cures only with those who trusted in him. He promised the possessed boy’s father: “Everything is possible to a man who trusts” (Mk 9:23).
133. Faith, then, is from the heart - the loving, trusting, and hoping in the Lord that comes from God’s own love flooding our hearts. This trusting Faith “lives and grows through prayer and worship” - personal heartfelt conversation with God that is the opposite of mindless, mechanical repetition of memorized formulas. Genuine personal prayer and group prayer find both their inspirational source and summit of perfection in the Liturgy, the Catholic community’s official public Trinitarian worship of the Father, through Jesus Christ our Lord, in the Holy Spirit (cf. PCP II 74-77).
C. Faith and Three Classic Questions
134. These three aspects of our Christian Faith - believing, doing, prayerful trusting - respond to the three classical questions posed to every person in life, and to St. Augustine’s famous triple definition of faith. To the question “What can I know?” Christian faith responds that we can know God as Our Father and Christ as Our Lord (credere Deum/Christum). “Know that we belong to God . . . that the Son of God has come and has given us discernment to recognize the One who is true” (1 Jn 5:19-20). Pagkilala sa Ama, sa Anak at sa Espiritu Santo.
135. “What should I do?” is answered curtly by “Keep His commandments” (1 Jn 2:3), which means to “love in deed and truth and not merely talk about it” (1 Jn 3:18). This demands acting on the credibility of God’s teachings in Christ as true and dependable (credere Deo/Christo).
136. Finally, to the question “What may we hope for?” Christian Faith celebrates in prayer and sacrament the unshakeable hope that “neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor powers; neither height nor depth nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God that comes to us in Christ Jesus, our Lord” (Rom 8:38-39). In brief, this hope means to believe in God “with your whole heart, with your whole soul, and with all your mind” (Mt 22:37), entrusting ourselves to Him in love (credere in Deum/Christum).
D. Faith and Salvation
137. But faith is not some “answer box” - it is not some “thing” we have, keep, and own. Rather, real faith is a force within us that by the power of Christ’s Holy Spirit gradually works a transformation in our daily thoughts, hopes, attitudes and values. In religious terms, we know that faith is necessary for salvation - it is the “beginning of our salvation” (cf. Trent, ND 1935; CCC 161). For “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb 11:6). From experience we realize that faith brings us fuller life which can be described by three basic values: genuine personal maturity, freedom and happiness.
Maturity
138. Faith is a growth in personal maturity because it helps us “put childish ways aside” (1 Cor 13:11). It develops a basic honesty in us before God and man by making us aware of the sacrifices demanded by authentic human love. It grounds our own self-identity in the fact that we are sons and daughters of the Father, redeemed by the Blood of Christ our Savior, and inspired by their indwelling Holy Spirit.
Freedom
139. Faith in Christ frees us from preferring “darkness rather than light” (Jn 3:19), “the praise of men to the glory of God” (Jn 12:43). Without faith in God, we are at the mercy of “carnal allurements, enticements for the eye, the life of empty show” so that “the Father’s love has no place in us” (1 Jn 2:15-16). As Scripture warns us: “the world with its seductions is passing away, but the man who does God’s will endures forever” (1 Jn 2:17).
Spiritual Joy
140. In so liberating us, faith in Christ fosters the value of spiritual joy. So Mary proclaimed: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Lk 1:46-47). John the Baptist was “overjoyed” to hear Christ’s voice __ “that is my joy, and it is complete” (Jn 3:29). Christ himself taught his disciples “so that my joy may be yours, and your joy may be complete” (Jn 15:11), a “joy no one can take from you” (Jn 16:22). For Christian Faith is our response to Christ’s “Good News,” lived in the Spirit whose fruits are “love, joy, peace, patience, endurance, kindness, generosity, faith, mildness and chastity” (Gal 5:22).
125. Our Christian Faith is truly life-giving and mature only through love, for “the man without love has known nothing of God, for God is love” (1 Jn 4:8). And to be Christian, this love must be inseparably love of God and love of neighbor, like Christ’s. It thus impels us to mission, to evangelize, by bringing others the Good News (cf. 1 Cor 9:16). Such a missionary spirit is the test of authentic Faith because it is unthinkable that a person should believe in Christ’s Word and Kingdom without bearing witness and proclaiming it in his turn (cf. EN 24; PCP II 67-71, 402). This means we are all called to share in Christ’s own three-fold mission as priest, prophet and king (cf. PCP II 116- 21; LG 10-13).
Informed and Communitarian
126. PCP II insists that Catholic Faith must be “informed,” that is “believing Jesus’ words, and accepting his teachings, trusting that he has “the words of eternal life” (cf. Jn 6:68; NCDP 147). It must be “communitarian” since it is the Church that transmits to us Christ’s revelation through Sacred Scripture and its living Tradition, and alone makes possible for us an adequate faith-response (cf. PCP II 65).
Inculturated
127. This Catholic faith in God and in Jesus Christ is never separated from the typical Filipino faith in family and friends. On the one hand, we live out our faith in God precisely in our daily relationships with family, friends, fellow workers, etc. On the other hand, each of these is radically affected by our Catholic Faith in God our Father, in Jesus Christ His only begotten Son, our Savior, and in their Holy Spirit dwelling within us in grace. “This is how all will know you for my disciples: your love for one another” (Jn 13:35; cf. PCP II 72-73, 162, 202-11).
B. The Three Essential Dimensions of Faith
128. Vatican II explains this faith-response as follows: “By faith man freely commits his entire self to God, making ‘the full submission of his intellect and will to God who reveals,’ and willingly assenting to the Revelation given by Him” (DV 5). Christian Faith, then, touches every part of us: our minds (believing), our wills (doing), and our hearts (trusting). Let us briefly examine each aspect in turn.
Believing
129. Faith involves our basic convictions as Christians. “For if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead; you will be saved” (Rom 10:9). John sums up his Gospel with: “These things have been recorded to help you believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, so that through this faith you may have life in his name” (Jn 20: 31). Faith, then, is knowing, but not mere “head knowledge” of some abstract truths. It is like the deep knowledge we have of our parents, or of anyone we love dearly. Christian Faith, then, is personal knowledge of Jesus Christ as “my Lord and my God” (Jn 20:28). Christ solemnly assures each of us: “Here I stand knocking at the door. If anyone hears me calling and opens the door, I will enter his house, and have supper with him, and he with me” (Rv 3:20).
Doing
130. But besides believing, faith is also doing. As St. James writes: “My brothers, what good is it to profess faith without practicing it?” (Jas 2:14). Christ himself taught: “None of those who cry out ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of God, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Mt 7:21). Faith, then, is a commitment to follow (obey) God’s will for us. This we see exemplified in Mary’s “I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be done to me as you say” (Lk 1:38). PCP II brings out this “doing” dimension of faith as “witnessing” through “loving service” of our needy neighbors. In our concrete situation, particularly urgent is the call for: 1) deeds of justice and love; and 2) for protecting and caring for our endangered earth’s environment (cf. PCP II 78-80).
131. Of course, we realize that we often do not do what we affirm in faith. But this awareness of our failures emphasizes all the more the essential place of behavior in authentic Christian Faith. It also makes us more conscious of our need for Christ’s Spirit to live out our faith in our actions. “For apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5). “Before this faith can be exercised, man must have the grace of God to move and assist him; he must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God” (DV 5).
Entrusting/Worshipping
132. Beyond believing and doing, faith is also entrusting oneself into God’s hands. Abraham, our father in faith, at God’s command left everything to set out for a foreign land. Against all human odds Moses trusted Yahweh to free the Hebrews from their slavery in Egypt. In the New Testament, Jesus worked signs and cures only with those who trusted in him. He promised the possessed boy’s father: “Everything is possible to a man who trusts” (Mk 9:23).
133. Faith, then, is from the heart - the loving, trusting, and hoping in the Lord that comes from God’s own love flooding our hearts. This trusting Faith “lives and grows through prayer and worship” - personal heartfelt conversation with God that is the opposite of mindless, mechanical repetition of memorized formulas. Genuine personal prayer and group prayer find both their inspirational source and summit of perfection in the Liturgy, the Catholic community’s official public Trinitarian worship of the Father, through Jesus Christ our Lord, in the Holy Spirit (cf. PCP II 74-77).
C. Faith and Three Classic Questions
134. These three aspects of our Christian Faith - believing, doing, prayerful trusting - respond to the three classical questions posed to every person in life, and to St. Augustine’s famous triple definition of faith. To the question “What can I know?” Christian faith responds that we can know God as Our Father and Christ as Our Lord (credere Deum/Christum). “Know that we belong to God . . . that the Son of God has come and has given us discernment to recognize the One who is true” (1 Jn 5:19-20). Pagkilala sa Ama, sa Anak at sa Espiritu Santo.
135. “What should I do?” is answered curtly by “Keep His commandments” (1 Jn 2:3), which means to “love in deed and truth and not merely talk about it” (1 Jn 3:18). This demands acting on the credibility of God’s teachings in Christ as true and dependable (credere Deo/Christo).
136. Finally, to the question “What may we hope for?” Christian Faith celebrates in prayer and sacrament the unshakeable hope that “neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor powers; neither height nor depth nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God that comes to us in Christ Jesus, our Lord” (Rom 8:38-39). In brief, this hope means to believe in God “with your whole heart, with your whole soul, and with all your mind” (Mt 22:37), entrusting ourselves to Him in love (credere in Deum/Christum).
D. Faith and Salvation
137. But faith is not some “answer box” - it is not some “thing” we have, keep, and own. Rather, real faith is a force within us that by the power of Christ’s Holy Spirit gradually works a transformation in our daily thoughts, hopes, attitudes and values. In religious terms, we know that faith is necessary for salvation - it is the “beginning of our salvation” (cf. Trent, ND 1935; CCC 161). For “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb 11:6). From experience we realize that faith brings us fuller life which can be described by three basic values: genuine personal maturity, freedom and happiness.
Maturity
138. Faith is a growth in personal maturity because it helps us “put childish ways aside” (1 Cor 13:11). It develops a basic honesty in us before God and man by making us aware of the sacrifices demanded by authentic human love. It grounds our own self-identity in the fact that we are sons and daughters of the Father, redeemed by the Blood of Christ our Savior, and inspired by their indwelling Holy Spirit.
Freedom
139. Faith in Christ frees us from preferring “darkness rather than light” (Jn 3:19), “the praise of men to the glory of God” (Jn 12:43). Without faith in God, we are at the mercy of “carnal allurements, enticements for the eye, the life of empty show” so that “the Father’s love has no place in us” (1 Jn 2:15-16). As Scripture warns us: “the world with its seductions is passing away, but the man who does God’s will endures forever” (1 Jn 2:17).
Spiritual Joy
140. In so liberating us, faith in Christ fosters the value of spiritual joy. So Mary proclaimed: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Lk 1:46-47). John the Baptist was “overjoyed” to hear Christ’s voice __ “that is my joy, and it is complete” (Jn 3:29). Christ himself taught his disciples “so that my joy may be yours, and your joy may be complete” (Jn 15:11), a “joy no one can take from you” (Jn 16:22). For Christian Faith is our response to Christ’s “Good News,” lived in the Spirit whose fruits are “love, joy, peace, patience, endurance, kindness, generosity, faith, mildness and chastity” (Gal 5:22).
III. PARADOXICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF FAITH
141. Christian Faith presents us with a number of paradoxes that help us grasp its complex reality.
A. Certain, Yet Obscure
142. The first is that Faith is both most certain yet obscure (cf. CCC 157-58, 164). In common usage we speak of “taking things on faith” when we are not sure. We live in a secular age where “to be sure” means being able to prove it by experiment and “scientific” means. But this is a rationalistic illusion. We have been “brainwashed” by our own creation of today’s scientific technology.
143. As Filipinos, we realize that none of our major personal decisions, nor our basic ideals and attitudes towards life, freedom, love, etc. could ever be “proven” by scientific experiment. Our family, our friends, our community, our vocation in life - all depend on the vision, inspiration and strength we call “faith”. It is the most “certain” of all we know because it is the foundation upon which we build our lives. But how are we sure of this “faith-foundation”?
144. Such a sure foundation could never come from ourselves, or from other limited men or women. It could never arise from some self-evident truth, or some logical deduction that compels assent (CCC 156). All these need to be, themselves, grounded on some unshakeable foundation. Only the very Word of God could possibly offer such a foundation. Faith is certain because it rests on God who reveals Himself in the person of Jesus Christ, present to us in His Spirit. We are certain of our Faith because it is our personally committed loving knowledge based on the convincing signs of God revealing Himself in Jesus Christ, and present to us in His Church through word, service, fellowship, and sacrament.
145. But this certainty of Faith does not mean everything is clear and obvious. On the contrary, we believe God is “Mystery”, that is, He is always more than we can ever fully comprehend. St. Paul teaches us: “Now we see indistinctly, as in a mirror” (1 Cor 13:12). “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor 5:7). But this obscurity which we experience even in our deepest human relations does not destroy faith’s firmness. We instinctively recognize that persons, and especially the all-personal God, can never be reduced to being “proven” by scientific experiment.
B. Free, Yet Morally Obliging
146. Faith’s second paradox is that it is both free and morally obliging (cf. CCC 160). Our Christian Faith is a free response. No one, not even God, forces us to believe.
God calls men to serve Him in Spirit and in truth. Consequently, they are bound to Him in conscience but not coerced. God has regard for the dignity of the human person which He himself created: the human person is to be guided by his own judgment and to enjoy freedom (DH 11).
We Filipinos experience this paradoxical combination of freedom and obligation in our family relationships and friendships. Persons who love us the most have the most claim on us, yet force us the least. We naturally respond to them in love. God, who by loving us the most has the greatest claim on us, leaves and keeps us most free.
C. Reasonable, Yet Beyond Natural Reason
147. A third paradox is that Christian Faith is both reasonable, yet more than natural reason (cf. CCC 155-56). Christian Faith is in no conflict with our reason. On the contrary, only rational creatures can believe. Yet faith itself is a grace that enlightens our minds. “Unless you believe, you will not understand” (Augustine’s quote of Is 7:9). Our faith in Christ illumines our reason because we believe him who claims “I am the light of the world. No follower of mine shall ever walk in darkness; no, he shall possess the light of life” (Jn 8:12; cf. Vatican I, ND 135).
D. An Act, Yet a Process
148. A fourth paradox highlights Faith as both a particular act, yet perseverance in a life-long process that is the beginning of eternal life (cf. CCC 162-63). John’s Gospel declares: “Eternal life is this: to know you, the only true God, and him whom you have sent, Jesus Christ.” (Jn 17:3). But this faith in Christ is much more than a single, personal decision for Christ. It is an enduring way of life within the Christian community, the Church. In fact it is the principle of our new life in Christ, which gives us a foretaste of life-with-him in heaven. St. Paul wrote: “The life that I now live is not my own; Christ is living in me. I still live my human life, but it is a life of faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20). Faith as “following Christ” must be gradually and perseveringly developed so that it comes to touch every aspect of our lives, throughout our whole lives.
E. A Gift, Yet Our Doing
149. Faith’s fifth paradox is that it is both a gift, a grace from God, yet something we do (cf. PCP II 68; CCC 153-55). It is a gift because “No one can come to me,” Jesus said, “unless the Father who sent me draws him” (Jn 6:44). St. Paul confirms this: “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except in the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 12:3). Our Christian Faith, then, is not merely of our own doing. It depends upon God for two things: first, God’s free gift of revealing Himself throughout salvation history; second, for the grace of the Holy Spirit’s interior illumination and inspiration which “gives to all joy in assenting to the truth and believing in it” (Vat. I, DS 3010; ND 120).
150. But God’s “gift” of faith demands our free cooperation with others. St. Paul explains this: “Faith, then, comes through hearing, and what is heard is the word of Christ” (Rom 10:17). Our hearing of Christ’s word today depends on the preaching and teaching just as it did in the time of the Apostles (cf. Mt 28:20; Acts 2:42; 4:25). This “hearing” means not only listening to the Word of God in Scripture and to Church teaching. It also involves discerning God’s presence to us through events in our lives, our companions, our inner thoughts, yearnings and fears, etc. In brief, faith is also our active response to the witness to Christ and the Gospel given us by others. This active response is motivated and inspired by the prayer and worship we share with our fellow members of Christ’s Church.
F. Personal, Yet Ecclesial
151. Faith’s sixth paradox is its personal yet ecclesial nature. It is first of all the Church who believes and thus supports and nourishes our faith (cf. CCC 168-69). We received the grace of faith when we were baptized and received into the Christian community, the Church. Within our Christian families and our parish community, the faith implanted in Baptism grows and matures. Through catechesis, through the Sacrament of Confirmation, through the Word of God preached and explained, and especially through the Eucharistic celebration of Christ’s Paschal sacrifice, we grow in faith. Our personal faith in Christ is supported and intensified by our fellow members in the parish or BCC, according to God’s own plan. For “He has willed to make men holy and save them, not as individuals without any bond or link between them, but rather to make them into a people” (LG 9).
152. Christian faith has many different adherents and forms, even in our country. But a central feature of Catholic Faith is its ecclesial structure. God always revealed Himself in the Old and New Testaments in terms of a community. Moreover, this revelation has been handed down through the Church’s tradition to us today. It is in the Church that we Catholics experience the power of the Risen Christ through the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is in the Church, the body of Christ, that the Catholic Filipino meets Christ in God’s Word in Scripture, in Church teaching, in the liturgical, sacramental praise and worship of God, and in the ministry of service of one another.
153. Christ is personal Savior to Filipino Catholics not as private individuals, but as members of a community of salvation wherein we meet Jesus and experience his saving power. Faith is never just something private or individualistic, but a sharing in the Christian community’s faith. This faith is in living continuity with the Apostolic Church, as well as being united to all the Catholic communities today the world over. Vatican II well describes the origins of this ecclesial dimension of faith:
154. “As the firstborn of many brethren, and by the gift of his Spirit, Christ established, after his Death and Resurrection, a new brotherly communion among all who received him in faith and love; this is the communion of his own body, the Church, in which everyone as members would render mutual service in the measure of the different gifts bestowed on each” (GS 32).
IV. MARY: MODEL OF FAITH
155. Many Filipino Catholics probably learn more about Faith from their devotion to the Virgin Mary than any other way. This is perfectly grounded in Scripture which portrays Mary as the exemplar of faith. Through her “Yes” at the Annunciation, Mary “becomes the model of faith” (AMB 35; cf. CCC 148). Luke stresses the contrast between Mary’s faith and the disbelief of Zachary by Elizabeth’s greeting. “Blest is she who trusted that Lord’s words to her would be fulfilled” (Lk 1:20, 45). John Paul II writes that “in the expression ‘Blest are you who believed’ we can rightly find a kind of ‘key’ which unlocks for us the innermost reality of Mary, whom the angel hailed as ‘full of grace’ ” (cf. RMa 19).
156. Mary perfectly exemplified the common definitions of faith as “full submission of intellect and will” and the “obedience of faith” (Rom 16:26; 1:5; cf. DV 5). But she did it personally, with all her human and feminine “I”, and this response of faith included both perfect cooperation with the “grace of God that precedes and assists,” and perfect openness to the action of the Holy Spirit, who constantly brings faith to completion by his gifts (DV 5; cf. LG 56). Luke carries this theme of Mary’s faith into his second inspired book where he describes her presence among “those who believed” in the apostolic community after the Resurrection (cf. Acts 1:14).
157. Mary is truly an effective inspiration to us because she constantly exercised faith in all the realities of ordinary, daily living, even in family crises. Luke’s account of the “finding in the Temple” offers a perfect example (cf. Lk 2:41-52). There is the first stage of astonishment at seeing Jesus in the temple, in the midst of the teachers. Astonishment is often the beginning of faith, the sign and condition to break beyond our “mind-set” and learn something new. Mary and Joseph learned something from Jesus that day.
158. Second, there is distress and worry, real anguish and suffering. As with the prophets, God’s Word brings good and bad fortune. Mary was already “taking up the Cross” of the disciple of Christ. Third, there is often a lack of understanding. Both Mary and Joseph, and later “the Twelve,” could not understand what Jesus meant. Faith is not “clear insight” but “seeing indistinctly, as in a mirror” (1 Cor 13:12). Finally, there is the fourth stage of search wherein Mary did not drop the incident from her mind, but rather “kept all these things in her heart.” Faith is a continual search for meaning, for making sense of what is happening by uncovering what links them together. Like the “scribe who is learned in the reign of God” Mary acted like “the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old” (Mt 13:52).
159. Since faith is the key to Mary’s whole life, from her divine motherhood to her “falling asleep in the Lord,” her life is a real “pilgrimage of faith” (LG 58). That makes her our model and support in faith. But beyond our individual ‘faith lives,’ John Paul II has brought out its wider significance. I wish to draw on the ‘pilgrimage of faith’ on which the Blessed Virgin advanced . . . This is not just a question of the Virgin Mother’s life-story, of her personal journey of faith . . . It is also a question of the history of the whole people of God, of all who take part in the same ‘pilgrimage of faith’ (RMa 5; cf. 14- 18).
141. Christian Faith presents us with a number of paradoxes that help us grasp its complex reality.
A. Certain, Yet Obscure
142. The first is that Faith is both most certain yet obscure (cf. CCC 157-58, 164). In common usage we speak of “taking things on faith” when we are not sure. We live in a secular age where “to be sure” means being able to prove it by experiment and “scientific” means. But this is a rationalistic illusion. We have been “brainwashed” by our own creation of today’s scientific technology.
143. As Filipinos, we realize that none of our major personal decisions, nor our basic ideals and attitudes towards life, freedom, love, etc. could ever be “proven” by scientific experiment. Our family, our friends, our community, our vocation in life - all depend on the vision, inspiration and strength we call “faith”. It is the most “certain” of all we know because it is the foundation upon which we build our lives. But how are we sure of this “faith-foundation”?
144. Such a sure foundation could never come from ourselves, or from other limited men or women. It could never arise from some self-evident truth, or some logical deduction that compels assent (CCC 156). All these need to be, themselves, grounded on some unshakeable foundation. Only the very Word of God could possibly offer such a foundation. Faith is certain because it rests on God who reveals Himself in the person of Jesus Christ, present to us in His Spirit. We are certain of our Faith because it is our personally committed loving knowledge based on the convincing signs of God revealing Himself in Jesus Christ, and present to us in His Church through word, service, fellowship, and sacrament.
145. But this certainty of Faith does not mean everything is clear and obvious. On the contrary, we believe God is “Mystery”, that is, He is always more than we can ever fully comprehend. St. Paul teaches us: “Now we see indistinctly, as in a mirror” (1 Cor 13:12). “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor 5:7). But this obscurity which we experience even in our deepest human relations does not destroy faith’s firmness. We instinctively recognize that persons, and especially the all-personal God, can never be reduced to being “proven” by scientific experiment.
B. Free, Yet Morally Obliging
146. Faith’s second paradox is that it is both free and morally obliging (cf. CCC 160). Our Christian Faith is a free response. No one, not even God, forces us to believe.
God calls men to serve Him in Spirit and in truth. Consequently, they are bound to Him in conscience but not coerced. God has regard for the dignity of the human person which He himself created: the human person is to be guided by his own judgment and to enjoy freedom (DH 11).
We Filipinos experience this paradoxical combination of freedom and obligation in our family relationships and friendships. Persons who love us the most have the most claim on us, yet force us the least. We naturally respond to them in love. God, who by loving us the most has the greatest claim on us, leaves and keeps us most free.
C. Reasonable, Yet Beyond Natural Reason
147. A third paradox is that Christian Faith is both reasonable, yet more than natural reason (cf. CCC 155-56). Christian Faith is in no conflict with our reason. On the contrary, only rational creatures can believe. Yet faith itself is a grace that enlightens our minds. “Unless you believe, you will not understand” (Augustine’s quote of Is 7:9). Our faith in Christ illumines our reason because we believe him who claims “I am the light of the world. No follower of mine shall ever walk in darkness; no, he shall possess the light of life” (Jn 8:12; cf. Vatican I, ND 135).
D. An Act, Yet a Process
148. A fourth paradox highlights Faith as both a particular act, yet perseverance in a life-long process that is the beginning of eternal life (cf. CCC 162-63). John’s Gospel declares: “Eternal life is this: to know you, the only true God, and him whom you have sent, Jesus Christ.” (Jn 17:3). But this faith in Christ is much more than a single, personal decision for Christ. It is an enduring way of life within the Christian community, the Church. In fact it is the principle of our new life in Christ, which gives us a foretaste of life-with-him in heaven. St. Paul wrote: “The life that I now live is not my own; Christ is living in me. I still live my human life, but it is a life of faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20). Faith as “following Christ” must be gradually and perseveringly developed so that it comes to touch every aspect of our lives, throughout our whole lives.
E. A Gift, Yet Our Doing
149. Faith’s fifth paradox is that it is both a gift, a grace from God, yet something we do (cf. PCP II 68; CCC 153-55). It is a gift because “No one can come to me,” Jesus said, “unless the Father who sent me draws him” (Jn 6:44). St. Paul confirms this: “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except in the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 12:3). Our Christian Faith, then, is not merely of our own doing. It depends upon God for two things: first, God’s free gift of revealing Himself throughout salvation history; second, for the grace of the Holy Spirit’s interior illumination and inspiration which “gives to all joy in assenting to the truth and believing in it” (Vat. I, DS 3010; ND 120).
150. But God’s “gift” of faith demands our free cooperation with others. St. Paul explains this: “Faith, then, comes through hearing, and what is heard is the word of Christ” (Rom 10:17). Our hearing of Christ’s word today depends on the preaching and teaching just as it did in the time of the Apostles (cf. Mt 28:20; Acts 2:42; 4:25). This “hearing” means not only listening to the Word of God in Scripture and to Church teaching. It also involves discerning God’s presence to us through events in our lives, our companions, our inner thoughts, yearnings and fears, etc. In brief, faith is also our active response to the witness to Christ and the Gospel given us by others. This active response is motivated and inspired by the prayer and worship we share with our fellow members of Christ’s Church.
F. Personal, Yet Ecclesial
151. Faith’s sixth paradox is its personal yet ecclesial nature. It is first of all the Church who believes and thus supports and nourishes our faith (cf. CCC 168-69). We received the grace of faith when we were baptized and received into the Christian community, the Church. Within our Christian families and our parish community, the faith implanted in Baptism grows and matures. Through catechesis, through the Sacrament of Confirmation, through the Word of God preached and explained, and especially through the Eucharistic celebration of Christ’s Paschal sacrifice, we grow in faith. Our personal faith in Christ is supported and intensified by our fellow members in the parish or BCC, according to God’s own plan. For “He has willed to make men holy and save them, not as individuals without any bond or link between them, but rather to make them into a people” (LG 9).
152. Christian faith has many different adherents and forms, even in our country. But a central feature of Catholic Faith is its ecclesial structure. God always revealed Himself in the Old and New Testaments in terms of a community. Moreover, this revelation has been handed down through the Church’s tradition to us today. It is in the Church that we Catholics experience the power of the Risen Christ through the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is in the Church, the body of Christ, that the Catholic Filipino meets Christ in God’s Word in Scripture, in Church teaching, in the liturgical, sacramental praise and worship of God, and in the ministry of service of one another.
153. Christ is personal Savior to Filipino Catholics not as private individuals, but as members of a community of salvation wherein we meet Jesus and experience his saving power. Faith is never just something private or individualistic, but a sharing in the Christian community’s faith. This faith is in living continuity with the Apostolic Church, as well as being united to all the Catholic communities today the world over. Vatican II well describes the origins of this ecclesial dimension of faith:
154. “As the firstborn of many brethren, and by the gift of his Spirit, Christ established, after his Death and Resurrection, a new brotherly communion among all who received him in faith and love; this is the communion of his own body, the Church, in which everyone as members would render mutual service in the measure of the different gifts bestowed on each” (GS 32).
IV. MARY: MODEL OF FAITH
155. Many Filipino Catholics probably learn more about Faith from their devotion to the Virgin Mary than any other way. This is perfectly grounded in Scripture which portrays Mary as the exemplar of faith. Through her “Yes” at the Annunciation, Mary “becomes the model of faith” (AMB 35; cf. CCC 148). Luke stresses the contrast between Mary’s faith and the disbelief of Zachary by Elizabeth’s greeting. “Blest is she who trusted that Lord’s words to her would be fulfilled” (Lk 1:20, 45). John Paul II writes that “in the expression ‘Blest are you who believed’ we can rightly find a kind of ‘key’ which unlocks for us the innermost reality of Mary, whom the angel hailed as ‘full of grace’ ” (cf. RMa 19).
156. Mary perfectly exemplified the common definitions of faith as “full submission of intellect and will” and the “obedience of faith” (Rom 16:26; 1:5; cf. DV 5). But she did it personally, with all her human and feminine “I”, and this response of faith included both perfect cooperation with the “grace of God that precedes and assists,” and perfect openness to the action of the Holy Spirit, who constantly brings faith to completion by his gifts (DV 5; cf. LG 56). Luke carries this theme of Mary’s faith into his second inspired book where he describes her presence among “those who believed” in the apostolic community after the Resurrection (cf. Acts 1:14).
157. Mary is truly an effective inspiration to us because she constantly exercised faith in all the realities of ordinary, daily living, even in family crises. Luke’s account of the “finding in the Temple” offers a perfect example (cf. Lk 2:41-52). There is the first stage of astonishment at seeing Jesus in the temple, in the midst of the teachers. Astonishment is often the beginning of faith, the sign and condition to break beyond our “mind-set” and learn something new. Mary and Joseph learned something from Jesus that day.
158. Second, there is distress and worry, real anguish and suffering. As with the prophets, God’s Word brings good and bad fortune. Mary was already “taking up the Cross” of the disciple of Christ. Third, there is often a lack of understanding. Both Mary and Joseph, and later “the Twelve,” could not understand what Jesus meant. Faith is not “clear insight” but “seeing indistinctly, as in a mirror” (1 Cor 13:12). Finally, there is the fourth stage of search wherein Mary did not drop the incident from her mind, but rather “kept all these things in her heart.” Faith is a continual search for meaning, for making sense of what is happening by uncovering what links them together. Like the “scribe who is learned in the reign of God” Mary acted like “the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old” (Mt 13:52).
159. Since faith is the key to Mary’s whole life, from her divine motherhood to her “falling asleep in the Lord,” her life is a real “pilgrimage of faith” (LG 58). That makes her our model and support in faith. But beyond our individual ‘faith lives,’ John Paul II has brought out its wider significance. I wish to draw on the ‘pilgrimage of faith’ on which the Blessed Virgin advanced . . . This is not just a question of the Virgin Mother’s life-story, of her personal journey of faith . . . It is also a question of the history of the whole people of God, of all who take part in the same ‘pilgrimage of faith’ (RMa 5; cf. 14- 18).
I. OBSTACLES TO BELIEVING, DOING, WORSHIPPING
A. Unbelief vs. Believing
176. In Scripture, the problem of unbelief among the people of God, as distinct from the idolatry of the pagans, is a constant scandal. Three principal types of “not believing” can be picked out which remain relevant today. First is the simple denial that God exists, or that Jesus Christ is Lord, the only begotten Son. “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’ ” (Ps 14:1). “Who is the liar? He who denies that Jesus is the Christ” (1 Jn 2:22). Usually such denials are caused by erroneous ideas about both human beings and God (cf. CCC 2126). “Their exaggerated idea of being human causes their faith to languish. . . . Others have such a faulty notion of God that . . . their denial has no reference to the God of the Gospels” (GS 19).
177. Second, the opposite type of unbelieving is seeking “special knowledge” into one’s fate and future. Divination, sorcery and magic have always been condemned. “Let there not be found among you . . . a fortuneteller, soothsayer, charmer, diviner, or caster of spells, nor one who consults ghosts and spirits or seeks oracles from the dead” (Dt 18:10-11; cf. CCC 2115-17). Today we still have faith healers, private visionaries and the like, who play upon the credulity of simple Christians and draw them into such “abominations to the Lord” (Dt 18:12; cf. NCDP 136).
178. A third obstacle to Christian believing is the “natural” self-centeredness or pride that tempts everyone to see any dependence on God as against human freedom and self-fulfillment. From this attitude arises current skepticism, doubts and incredulity. “They” say: “what ‘modern’ person could possibly accept such old-fashioned beliefs!” (cf. CCC 2088-89). This mind-set is based on a false image: 1) of God as some authoritarian Judge, arbitrarily imposing His will on us; and 2) of our freedom as totally independent of God.
Response
179. PCP II has proposed that the basic help we need to face these challenges is clearly a “Renewed Catechesis” that grounds renewal in social apostolate and worship. Basically this involves a catechesis that is Christ-centered, rooted in the living Word of Scripture, and authentically Filipino and systematic (cf. PCP II 156-64). The aim is to communicate the “true teaching” of the Gospel message presented in a fitting manner (cf. GS 21). The basic “truth” presented in Scripture is that God created us free with relative autonomy. God wills our own good. But this in no way denies our complete dependence on God. Without the Creator there can be no created world (cf. GS 36).
180. Only in seeing every person in relation to God who is the author and final goal of all, is true human dignity preserved. Our true dignity rests on the fact that we are called to communion with God. As Vatican II stated: If we exist, it is because God has created us through love, and through love continues to hold us in existence. We cannot live fully according to truth unless we freely acknowledge that love and entrust ourselves to our Creator (GS 19).
181. The Risen Christ shows us how to carry on a “renewed catechesis” in a fitting manner in his encounter with the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. Christ first walked along with the two doubting disciples, listening to their story. Second he “interpreted for them every passage of Scripture which referred to him” (Lk 24:27). Finally, in breaking bread with them, he offered them the choice of believing. So Christ today leaves to his followers his word and “food for the journey in the sacrament of faith in which natural elements, the fruits of our cultivation, are changed into his glorified Body and Blood, as a supper of human fellowship and a foretaste of the heavenly banquet” (GS 38).
182. In summary, then, Christian doctrine or teaching is a living and life-giving reality that develops through the ages under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, believing in Christ can never be reduced to mere acceptance of “true teaching.” For in Christ the believer sees salvation: “Although you have never seen him, you love him, and without seeing, you now believe in him, and rejoice with inexpressible joy touched with glory, because you are achieving faith’s goal, your salvation” ( 1 Pt 1:8-9). This salvation is a present reality, affecting everything we think, and do, and hope for, every day of our lives.
B. Unbelief vs. Doing
183. But there is a “practical atheism” that has always been more common than any theoretical unbelief: Filipinos who live their lives as if God did not exist. Like the Hebrews of old, they do not ask the speculative question: “Does God exist?” Rather they are concerned with the practical: “Is the Lord in our midst or not?” (Ex 17:7) “Do we have to worry about Him?” “Will God hurt us in any way?” These “practical” atheists are indifferent to God’s love. This shows in their ingratitude, tepidity and spiritual sloth (cf. CCC 2094). They fail to recognize the signs of God’s presence. “How long will they refuse to believe in Me, despite all the signs I have performed among them?” (Nm 14:11). Today this blindness can often be traced to two general causes.
184. First, there is the pragmatic, secularistic mentality that measures all human success in terms of “economic and social emancipation” (GS 20). PCP II speaks of a “prevailing consumerism in our society” (PCP II 634). St. John describes the basic abiding causes within each of us — our “concupiscence”— of this “worldly view”: “Carnal allurements, enticements for the eye, the life of empty show - all these are from the world” (1 Jn 2:16).
185. Second, even more pertinent to our Philippine context as causing unbelief in behavior is the poverty and injustice among us. PCP II has strong words to say about these national causes for our sinfulness: “In the poverty and underdevelopment of our nation, in its conflicts and divisions, we see the hand of human sinfulness, particularly the grasping paws of greed for profit and power” (PCP II 266).
186. “Great numbers of people are acutely conscious of being deprived of the world’s goods through injustice and unfair distribution” (GS 9). “In the midst of huge numbers deprived of the absolute necessities of life there are some who live in riches and squander their wealth. . . . Luxury and misery exist side by side” (GS 63). PCP II speaks of how the Christian conscience must recoil at the sins committed against the poor: so many workers denied just wages to maintain living standards of the few. . . so many poor farmers tilling lands they will never own . . . so much economic and political power used selfishly to serve the few . . . (PCP II 267).
187. Such injustice is a major cause of unbelief not only in the exploited and oppressed, but also in those who commit the injustices. These exploiters deny God in practice by rejecting the God-given rights of their victims. The oppressed, for their part, come to deny God because they cannot see the truth of the Christian vision and promise in their daily lives. Unbelief in doing, then, gradually becomes a cultural reality for people suffering widespread injustices.
188. This culture of unbelief can take on systematic form in political or economic structures which deny basic human rights. Filipino Marxists blame religious faith together with feudalism, bureaucratic capitalism and imperialism for the problems of Philippine society (cf. PCP II 265). They claim that religion is a social pacifier, promising the poor and oppressed a heavenly reward if they only remain subservient now.
Response
189. The help prescribed by PCP II to face this unbelief in “doing” our faith is a “Renewed Social Apostolate” towards “Social Transformation” (cf. PCP II Decree Arts. 15; 20-27; and PCP II Document 165-66; 256-329). To the Marxists we reply that Christ never promised a heavenly reward to “do-nothing” followers, (those who cry out “Lord, Lord”). Reward is only for those who do the will of the Father (cf. Mt 7:21). Genuine Christian Faith, in its ethical-prophetic role, fosters basic human personal and social values. It shapes the lifestyle of Christians according to Gospel priorities and authentic human responsibility and justice. Outside of such faith, there is little that can check the “sin of the world” which remains the perduring, universal source of man’s exploitation of man.
190. PCP II not only presents the current social teachings of the Church in a manner relevant to our concrete Philippine situation. It also stresses the actual witness and concrete contributions already being offered by so many individuals, BCCs, NGOs, etc (cf. PCP II Decrees Art. 42, 4; and PCP II Document 390). Besides the material help thus offered, the deeper, more lasting contribution may well be in showing “good example” by putting the faith into practice. Such “good example” is especially effective when joined with reliable guidance and direction in essential Christian attitudes and responses to today’s challenges. The Catholic Church in the Philippines can rightfully claim to be especially blessed on both accounts.
C. Unbelief vs. Trusting/Worshipping
191. In this third area of faith — worship — one common attack comes from some contemporary psychologies which charge that religion is an illusion, an infantile projection of the lost father feature. They claim that we invent a father-god to provide security against our fears in this hostile world. Consequently, they attack the ground for Christian Hope, thus leading some to discouragement and even despair. Others are tempted to presumption: either presuming on human capacities alone, or on divine mercy without repentance and conversion of heart (cf. CCC 2091-92).
192. PCP II presents an opposite form of unbelief relative to worship. In the Philippines worship has, unfortunately, been often separated from the totality of life. The liturgy is not seen as the source and apex of the Church’s life. Rather it is seen as one department of life, without an intimate connection with social, economic and political life (PCP II 167). It is also true that too often certain popular pious practices and customs may appear more like superstition and self-centered, privatized attitudes than authentic Christian prayer.
Response
193. The way to respond to unbelief attacks against faith as worship is obviously “A Renewed Worship” (cf. PCP II 167-81). The Plenary Council prescribed one aspect of the needed remedy: There is an urgent need to stress to Filipino Catholics that the whole of life must be an act of worship, as St. Paul points out (cf. Rom 12:1). We cannot worship God in our churches and shrines, and then disregard Him in the daily business of life (PCP II 168).
194. Renewing the worship of our people requires renewing their prayer life and popular religious practices. Regarding the latter, PCP II counsels that our attitude has to be one of critical respect, encouragement and renewal. These practices must lead to the liturgy. They have to be vitally related to Filipino life, and serve the cause of full human development, justice, peace and the integrity of creation. We must have the courage to correct whatever leads to fanaticism or maintains people infantile in their faith. Yet, it adds, “at the same time, seeing how many of our people cherish these religious practices, we must use them as vehicles of evangelization toward worship in Spirit and truth” (PCP II 175). Now the basis for renewing our prayer life and religious practices is surely the Church’s Trinitarian prayer.
Trinitarian Prayer/Worship.
195. “The function of the Church is to render God the Father and His Incarnate Son present and as it were visible, while ceaselessly renewing and purifying herself under the guidance of the Holy Spirit” (GS 21). It is the Catholic worship of Father, Son and Spirit in the Christian community that can most effectively purify and heal our prayer of “illusion” and individualistic self-centeredness. For Trinitarian prayer calls us away from inauthentic “faith” seeking private security, to outgoing self-giving in sharing Christ’s and the Church’s saving mission of loving service. “This is how all will know you for my disciples: your love for one another” (Jn 13:35) shown in the service of each “one of my least brothers” (Mt 25:40).
196. Christian prayer, then, is no childish projection of a “father-idol” or a “Baby Jesus” serving as escape images from the pain of growth and love in the real world. Secular psychology’s objection actually touches the abuse of religious faith rather than its authentic reality. Genuine Christian prayer and hope are based, rather, on mature personal realization of God’s PRESENCE, and our consequent gratitude, thanksgiving, adoration and love of Him.
197. Trinitarian prayer draws the Catholic Filipino, by the indwelling Holy Spirit, into sharing Christ’s own experience of Abba, Father, whose “will be done on earth as in heaven” (Lord’s Prayer). Being rooted in the Church’s worship of Father, Son and Spirit, the Catholic Filipino is motivated to the greatest social responsibility, inspired by the Trinity’s infinite interpersonal, creative, and redeeming love. Filled with this Love, Catholics together in the liturgy respond with a resounding “Amen!” to the finale of all the Eucharistic Prayers:
Through him [Risen Incarnate Son], with him and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, Almighty Father, for ever and ever.
198. Trinitarian prayer can also help Filipino Catholics in the “inter-religious dialogue” discussed in PCP II. While the Plenary Council focused on the principles for the evangelizing mission to Filipino Muslims, Buddhists, Taoists, etc, (cf. PCP II 110-15), it implied the larger mission extending to all our fellow Asians who follow the great traditional religious cultures of the East. Commitment to Christ, the Incarnate Word of God, grounds the Christian dialogue with both Muslim and Jew who also revere God’s Word. The Buddhist goal is release from all human desires into the silent stillness of Nirvana. This relates to the Christian worship of the Father, whom “no one has ever seen” (Jn 1:18) and whom Christian mystics have experienced as “nothing, nothing, nothing. . .” of our worldly consciousness. Finally, Advaitan Hinduism can be approached through the Christian experience of the Holy Spirit, the source of oneness between the self and God who draws all men to greater communion in love.
II. OBSTACLES TO BELIEF IN SELF-BECOMING
199. Besides the obstacles to authentic faith’s three basic objective dimensions (what we believe, do and worship), others touch the subjective factors (how we believe, do and worship) in our natural process of maturing in the Faith. Worthy of note is the common misconception among many Filipino youth that “questioning in matters of faith” is sinful. This arises from a false view, commonly instilled by good-intentioned but erroneous religious instruction, that faith is something to be simply “accepted” from higher authorities. In actual practice, since this view is most often imbibed in childhood, it later becomes an easy excuse for not taking personal responsibility for one’s own religious convictions.
Response
200. What helps the most here is our on-going initiation into the Christian Faith involving the active participation of family, friends, BCCs, parish, Catholic community, etc. Christ and the Church call us to intelligent discipleship, in which we use all our faculties of mind, will, imagination and affections. We must clearly distinguish between two different mind-sets. The first is honest questioning that seeks through personal study, reflection and dialogue, to know our Lord better so we can love Him more ardently and follow Him more closely. The second is a self-centered attitude of real doubting, when, like doubting Thomas, we put prior conditions to believing in God (“I will not believe it unless . . . [Jn 20:25]).
201. Our life of faith challenges us to constant growth in religious understanding, moral vision and practice, and authentic prayer. This is made possible for us when we are strengthened and confirmed by our fellow Catholics united in the local Church, Christ’s own community of disciples.
A. Unbelief vs. Believing
176. In Scripture, the problem of unbelief among the people of God, as distinct from the idolatry of the pagans, is a constant scandal. Three principal types of “not believing” can be picked out which remain relevant today. First is the simple denial that God exists, or that Jesus Christ is Lord, the only begotten Son. “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’ ” (Ps 14:1). “Who is the liar? He who denies that Jesus is the Christ” (1 Jn 2:22). Usually such denials are caused by erroneous ideas about both human beings and God (cf. CCC 2126). “Their exaggerated idea of being human causes their faith to languish. . . . Others have such a faulty notion of God that . . . their denial has no reference to the God of the Gospels” (GS 19).
177. Second, the opposite type of unbelieving is seeking “special knowledge” into one’s fate and future. Divination, sorcery and magic have always been condemned. “Let there not be found among you . . . a fortuneteller, soothsayer, charmer, diviner, or caster of spells, nor one who consults ghosts and spirits or seeks oracles from the dead” (Dt 18:10-11; cf. CCC 2115-17). Today we still have faith healers, private visionaries and the like, who play upon the credulity of simple Christians and draw them into such “abominations to the Lord” (Dt 18:12; cf. NCDP 136).
178. A third obstacle to Christian believing is the “natural” self-centeredness or pride that tempts everyone to see any dependence on God as against human freedom and self-fulfillment. From this attitude arises current skepticism, doubts and incredulity. “They” say: “what ‘modern’ person could possibly accept such old-fashioned beliefs!” (cf. CCC 2088-89). This mind-set is based on a false image: 1) of God as some authoritarian Judge, arbitrarily imposing His will on us; and 2) of our freedom as totally independent of God.
Response
179. PCP II has proposed that the basic help we need to face these challenges is clearly a “Renewed Catechesis” that grounds renewal in social apostolate and worship. Basically this involves a catechesis that is Christ-centered, rooted in the living Word of Scripture, and authentically Filipino and systematic (cf. PCP II 156-64). The aim is to communicate the “true teaching” of the Gospel message presented in a fitting manner (cf. GS 21). The basic “truth” presented in Scripture is that God created us free with relative autonomy. God wills our own good. But this in no way denies our complete dependence on God. Without the Creator there can be no created world (cf. GS 36).
180. Only in seeing every person in relation to God who is the author and final goal of all, is true human dignity preserved. Our true dignity rests on the fact that we are called to communion with God. As Vatican II stated: If we exist, it is because God has created us through love, and through love continues to hold us in existence. We cannot live fully according to truth unless we freely acknowledge that love and entrust ourselves to our Creator (GS 19).
181. The Risen Christ shows us how to carry on a “renewed catechesis” in a fitting manner in his encounter with the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. Christ first walked along with the two doubting disciples, listening to their story. Second he “interpreted for them every passage of Scripture which referred to him” (Lk 24:27). Finally, in breaking bread with them, he offered them the choice of believing. So Christ today leaves to his followers his word and “food for the journey in the sacrament of faith in which natural elements, the fruits of our cultivation, are changed into his glorified Body and Blood, as a supper of human fellowship and a foretaste of the heavenly banquet” (GS 38).
182. In summary, then, Christian doctrine or teaching is a living and life-giving reality that develops through the ages under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, believing in Christ can never be reduced to mere acceptance of “true teaching.” For in Christ the believer sees salvation: “Although you have never seen him, you love him, and without seeing, you now believe in him, and rejoice with inexpressible joy touched with glory, because you are achieving faith’s goal, your salvation” ( 1 Pt 1:8-9). This salvation is a present reality, affecting everything we think, and do, and hope for, every day of our lives.
B. Unbelief vs. Doing
183. But there is a “practical atheism” that has always been more common than any theoretical unbelief: Filipinos who live their lives as if God did not exist. Like the Hebrews of old, they do not ask the speculative question: “Does God exist?” Rather they are concerned with the practical: “Is the Lord in our midst or not?” (Ex 17:7) “Do we have to worry about Him?” “Will God hurt us in any way?” These “practical” atheists are indifferent to God’s love. This shows in their ingratitude, tepidity and spiritual sloth (cf. CCC 2094). They fail to recognize the signs of God’s presence. “How long will they refuse to believe in Me, despite all the signs I have performed among them?” (Nm 14:11). Today this blindness can often be traced to two general causes.
184. First, there is the pragmatic, secularistic mentality that measures all human success in terms of “economic and social emancipation” (GS 20). PCP II speaks of a “prevailing consumerism in our society” (PCP II 634). St. John describes the basic abiding causes within each of us — our “concupiscence”— of this “worldly view”: “Carnal allurements, enticements for the eye, the life of empty show - all these are from the world” (1 Jn 2:16).
185. Second, even more pertinent to our Philippine context as causing unbelief in behavior is the poverty and injustice among us. PCP II has strong words to say about these national causes for our sinfulness: “In the poverty and underdevelopment of our nation, in its conflicts and divisions, we see the hand of human sinfulness, particularly the grasping paws of greed for profit and power” (PCP II 266).
186. “Great numbers of people are acutely conscious of being deprived of the world’s goods through injustice and unfair distribution” (GS 9). “In the midst of huge numbers deprived of the absolute necessities of life there are some who live in riches and squander their wealth. . . . Luxury and misery exist side by side” (GS 63). PCP II speaks of how the Christian conscience must recoil at the sins committed against the poor: so many workers denied just wages to maintain living standards of the few. . . so many poor farmers tilling lands they will never own . . . so much economic and political power used selfishly to serve the few . . . (PCP II 267).
187. Such injustice is a major cause of unbelief not only in the exploited and oppressed, but also in those who commit the injustices. These exploiters deny God in practice by rejecting the God-given rights of their victims. The oppressed, for their part, come to deny God because they cannot see the truth of the Christian vision and promise in their daily lives. Unbelief in doing, then, gradually becomes a cultural reality for people suffering widespread injustices.
188. This culture of unbelief can take on systematic form in political or economic structures which deny basic human rights. Filipino Marxists blame religious faith together with feudalism, bureaucratic capitalism and imperialism for the problems of Philippine society (cf. PCP II 265). They claim that religion is a social pacifier, promising the poor and oppressed a heavenly reward if they only remain subservient now.
Response
189. The help prescribed by PCP II to face this unbelief in “doing” our faith is a “Renewed Social Apostolate” towards “Social Transformation” (cf. PCP II Decree Arts. 15; 20-27; and PCP II Document 165-66; 256-329). To the Marxists we reply that Christ never promised a heavenly reward to “do-nothing” followers, (those who cry out “Lord, Lord”). Reward is only for those who do the will of the Father (cf. Mt 7:21). Genuine Christian Faith, in its ethical-prophetic role, fosters basic human personal and social values. It shapes the lifestyle of Christians according to Gospel priorities and authentic human responsibility and justice. Outside of such faith, there is little that can check the “sin of the world” which remains the perduring, universal source of man’s exploitation of man.
190. PCP II not only presents the current social teachings of the Church in a manner relevant to our concrete Philippine situation. It also stresses the actual witness and concrete contributions already being offered by so many individuals, BCCs, NGOs, etc (cf. PCP II Decrees Art. 42, 4; and PCP II Document 390). Besides the material help thus offered, the deeper, more lasting contribution may well be in showing “good example” by putting the faith into practice. Such “good example” is especially effective when joined with reliable guidance and direction in essential Christian attitudes and responses to today’s challenges. The Catholic Church in the Philippines can rightfully claim to be especially blessed on both accounts.
C. Unbelief vs. Trusting/Worshipping
191. In this third area of faith — worship — one common attack comes from some contemporary psychologies which charge that religion is an illusion, an infantile projection of the lost father feature. They claim that we invent a father-god to provide security against our fears in this hostile world. Consequently, they attack the ground for Christian Hope, thus leading some to discouragement and even despair. Others are tempted to presumption: either presuming on human capacities alone, or on divine mercy without repentance and conversion of heart (cf. CCC 2091-92).
192. PCP II presents an opposite form of unbelief relative to worship. In the Philippines worship has, unfortunately, been often separated from the totality of life. The liturgy is not seen as the source and apex of the Church’s life. Rather it is seen as one department of life, without an intimate connection with social, economic and political life (PCP II 167). It is also true that too often certain popular pious practices and customs may appear more like superstition and self-centered, privatized attitudes than authentic Christian prayer.
Response
193. The way to respond to unbelief attacks against faith as worship is obviously “A Renewed Worship” (cf. PCP II 167-81). The Plenary Council prescribed one aspect of the needed remedy: There is an urgent need to stress to Filipino Catholics that the whole of life must be an act of worship, as St. Paul points out (cf. Rom 12:1). We cannot worship God in our churches and shrines, and then disregard Him in the daily business of life (PCP II 168).
194. Renewing the worship of our people requires renewing their prayer life and popular religious practices. Regarding the latter, PCP II counsels that our attitude has to be one of critical respect, encouragement and renewal. These practices must lead to the liturgy. They have to be vitally related to Filipino life, and serve the cause of full human development, justice, peace and the integrity of creation. We must have the courage to correct whatever leads to fanaticism or maintains people infantile in their faith. Yet, it adds, “at the same time, seeing how many of our people cherish these religious practices, we must use them as vehicles of evangelization toward worship in Spirit and truth” (PCP II 175). Now the basis for renewing our prayer life and religious practices is surely the Church’s Trinitarian prayer.
Trinitarian Prayer/Worship.
195. “The function of the Church is to render God the Father and His Incarnate Son present and as it were visible, while ceaselessly renewing and purifying herself under the guidance of the Holy Spirit” (GS 21). It is the Catholic worship of Father, Son and Spirit in the Christian community that can most effectively purify and heal our prayer of “illusion” and individualistic self-centeredness. For Trinitarian prayer calls us away from inauthentic “faith” seeking private security, to outgoing self-giving in sharing Christ’s and the Church’s saving mission of loving service. “This is how all will know you for my disciples: your love for one another” (Jn 13:35) shown in the service of each “one of my least brothers” (Mt 25:40).
196. Christian prayer, then, is no childish projection of a “father-idol” or a “Baby Jesus” serving as escape images from the pain of growth and love in the real world. Secular psychology’s objection actually touches the abuse of religious faith rather than its authentic reality. Genuine Christian prayer and hope are based, rather, on mature personal realization of God’s PRESENCE, and our consequent gratitude, thanksgiving, adoration and love of Him.
197. Trinitarian prayer draws the Catholic Filipino, by the indwelling Holy Spirit, into sharing Christ’s own experience of Abba, Father, whose “will be done on earth as in heaven” (Lord’s Prayer). Being rooted in the Church’s worship of Father, Son and Spirit, the Catholic Filipino is motivated to the greatest social responsibility, inspired by the Trinity’s infinite interpersonal, creative, and redeeming love. Filled with this Love, Catholics together in the liturgy respond with a resounding “Amen!” to the finale of all the Eucharistic Prayers:
Through him [Risen Incarnate Son], with him and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, Almighty Father, for ever and ever.
198. Trinitarian prayer can also help Filipino Catholics in the “inter-religious dialogue” discussed in PCP II. While the Plenary Council focused on the principles for the evangelizing mission to Filipino Muslims, Buddhists, Taoists, etc, (cf. PCP II 110-15), it implied the larger mission extending to all our fellow Asians who follow the great traditional religious cultures of the East. Commitment to Christ, the Incarnate Word of God, grounds the Christian dialogue with both Muslim and Jew who also revere God’s Word. The Buddhist goal is release from all human desires into the silent stillness of Nirvana. This relates to the Christian worship of the Father, whom “no one has ever seen” (Jn 1:18) and whom Christian mystics have experienced as “nothing, nothing, nothing. . .” of our worldly consciousness. Finally, Advaitan Hinduism can be approached through the Christian experience of the Holy Spirit, the source of oneness between the self and God who draws all men to greater communion in love.
II. OBSTACLES TO BELIEF IN SELF-BECOMING
199. Besides the obstacles to authentic faith’s three basic objective dimensions (what we believe, do and worship), others touch the subjective factors (how we believe, do and worship) in our natural process of maturing in the Faith. Worthy of note is the common misconception among many Filipino youth that “questioning in matters of faith” is sinful. This arises from a false view, commonly instilled by good-intentioned but erroneous religious instruction, that faith is something to be simply “accepted” from higher authorities. In actual practice, since this view is most often imbibed in childhood, it later becomes an easy excuse for not taking personal responsibility for one’s own religious convictions.
Response
200. What helps the most here is our on-going initiation into the Christian Faith involving the active participation of family, friends, BCCs, parish, Catholic community, etc. Christ and the Church call us to intelligent discipleship, in which we use all our faculties of mind, will, imagination and affections. We must clearly distinguish between two different mind-sets. The first is honest questioning that seeks through personal study, reflection and dialogue, to know our Lord better so we can love Him more ardently and follow Him more closely. The second is a self-centered attitude of real doubting, when, like doubting Thomas, we put prior conditions to believing in God (“I will not believe it unless . . . [Jn 20:25]).
201. Our life of faith challenges us to constant growth in religious understanding, moral vision and practice, and authentic prayer. This is made possible for us when we are strengthened and confirmed by our fellow Catholics united in the local Church, Christ’s own community of disciples.