Michael August - September 2013

other roads which take us in endless circles, going no-

where.

4. There is an urgent need, then, to see once again

that faith is a light, for once the flame of faith dies

out, all other lights begin to dim. The light of faith is

unique, since it is capable of illuminating every as-

pect of human existence. A light this powerful can-

not come from ourselves but from a more primordial

source: in a word, it must come from God. Faith is

born of an encounter with the living God who calls

us and reveals his love, a love which precedes us and

upon which we can lean for security and for building

our lives.

Transformed by this love, we gain fresh vision,

new eyes to see; we realize that it contains a great

promise of fulfilment, and that a vision of the future

opens up before us. Faith, received from God as a

supernatural gift, becomes a light for our way, guiding

our journey through time. On the one hand, it is a light

coming from the past, the light of the foundational

memory of the life of Jesus which revealed his per-

fectly trustworthy love, a love capable of triumphing

over death. Yet since Christ has risen and draws us

beyond death, faith is also a light coming from the fu-

ture and opening before us vast horizons which guide

us beyond our isolated selves towards the breadth of

communion. We come to see that faith does not dwell

in shadow and gloom; it is a light for our darkness.

Dante, in the Divine Comedy, after professing his faith

to Saint Peter, describes that light as a “spark, which

then becomes a burning flame and like a heavenly star

within me glimmers”. It is this light of faith that I would

now like to consider, so that it can grow and enlighten

the present, becoming a star to brighten the horizon

of our journey at a time when mankind is particularly

in need of light.

7. In God’s gift of faith, a supernatural infused vir-

tue, we realize that a great love has been offered us,

a good word has been spoken to us, and that when

we welcome that word, Jesus Christ the Word made

flesh, the Holy Spirit transforms us, lights up our way

to the future and enables us joyfully to advance along

that way on wings of hope. Thus wonderfully inter-

woven, faith, hope and charity are the driving force of

the Christian life as it advances towards full commun-

ion with God. But what is it like, this road which faith

opens up before us? What is the origin of this power-

ful light which brightens the journey of a successful

and fruitful life?

Abraham, our father in faith

8. Faith opens the way before us and accompanies

our steps through time. Hence, if we want to under-

stand what faith is, we need to follow the route it has

taken, the path trodden by believers, as witnessed first

in the Old Testament. Here

a unique place belongs to

Abraham, our father in faith.

Something disturbing takes

place in his life: God speaks

to him; he reveals himself as

a God who speaks and calls

his name. Faith is linked to

hearing. Abraham does not

see God, but hears his voice.

Faith thus takes on a personal

aspect. God is not the god of

a particular place, or a deity

linked to specific sacred time,

but the God of a person, the

God of Abraham, Isaac and

Jacob, capable of interacting

with man and establishing a

covenant with him. Faith is

our response to a word which

engages us personally, to a

“Thou” who calls us by name.

12. The history of the people of Israel in the Book

of Exodus follows in the wake of Abraham’s faith. Faith

once again is born of a primordial gift: Israel trusts in

God, who promises to set his people free from their

misery. Faith becomes a summons to a lengthy jour-

ney leading to worship of the Lord on Sinai and the in-

heritance of a promised land. God’s love is seen to be

like that of a father who carries his child along the way

(cf. Dt 1:31). Israel’s confession of faith takes shape as

an account of God’s deeds in setting his people free

and acting as their guide (cf. Dt 26:5-11), an account

passed down from one generation to the next...

Idolatry is the opposite of faith

13. The history of Israel also shows us the tempta-

tion of unbelief to which the people yielded more than

once. Here the opposite of faith is shown to be idolatry.

While Moses is speaking to God on Sinai, the people

cannot bear the mystery of God’s hiddenness, they

cannot endure the time of waiting to see his face. Faith

by its very nature demands renouncing the immedi-

ate possession which sight would appear to offer; it

is an invitation to turn to the source of the light, while

respecting the mystery of a countenance which will

unveil itself personally in its own good time... In place

of faith in God, it seems better to worship an idol, into

whose face we can look directly and whose origin we

know, because it is the work of our own hands... Those

who choose not to put their trust in God must hear

the din of countless idols crying out: “Put your trust

in me!”

Faith, tied as it is to conversion, is the opposite of

idolatry; it breaks with idols to turn to the living God

in a personal encounter. Believing means entrusting

oneself to a merciful love which always accepts and

pardons, which sustains and directs our lives, and

which shows its power by its ability to make straight

the crooked lines of our history. Faith consists in the

willingness to let ourselves be constantly transformed

and renewed by God’s call. Herein lies the paradox:

by constantly turning towards the Lord, we discover a

sure path which liberates us from the dissolution im-

posed upon us by idols.

The fullness of Christian faith

15. Christian faith is centred on Christ; it is the con-

fession that Jesus is Lord and that God has raised him

from the dead (cf. Rom 10:9). All the threads of the

Old Testament converge on Christ; he becomes the

definitive “Yes” to all the promises, the ultimate basis

of our “Amen” to God (cf. 2 Cor 1:20). The history of

Jesus is the complete manifestation of God’s reliabil-

ity. If Israel continued to recall God’s great acts of love,

which formed the core of its confession of faith and

broadened its gaze in faith, the life of Jesus now ap-

pears as the locus of God’s definitive intervention, the

supreme manifestation of his love for us...

17. Our culture has lost its sense of God’s tangible

presence and activity in our world. We think that God

is to be found in the beyond, on another level of real-

ity, far removed from our everyday relationships. But

if this were the case, if God could not act in the world,

his love would not be truly powerful, truly real, and

thus not even true, a love capable of delivering the

bliss that it promises. It would make no difference at

all whether we believed in him or not. Christians, on

the contrary, profess their faith in God’s tangible and

powerful love which really does act in history and de-

termines its final destiny: a love that can be encoun-

tered, a love fully revealed in Christ’s passion, death

and resurrection.

18. This fullness which Jesus brings to faith has

another decisive aspect. In faith, Christ is not simply

the one in whom we believe, the supreme manifesta-

tion of God’s love; he is also the one with whom we

are united precisely in order to believe. Faith does not

merely gaze at Jesus, but sees things as Jesus himself

sees them, with his own eyes: it is a participation in

his way of seeing. In many areas in our lives we trust

others who know more than we do. We trust the archi-

tect who builds our home, the pharmacist who gives

us medicine for healing, the lawyer who defends us in

court. We also need someone trustworthy and know-

ledgeable where God is concerned. Jesus, the Son of

God, is the one who makes God known to us (cf. Jn

1:18)...

“If you knew the gift of

God...” said Jesus to the

Samaritan woman (John

4:10). Faith is a gift from

God, one must pray to

obtain it.

This picture was taken on October

10, 2009 at the Parish of the Assump-

tion of Our Lady in Cordova, Spain,

at the baptism of Valentino Mora, son

of Erica, a mom of 21. The photog-

rapher, Maria Silvana Salles, works

with a traditional camera and had

to send the film to be developed to a

shop in Cordova. When she received

the photos, she noticed with surprise

that the water poured from the head

of Valentino was a perfect rosary. .

MICHAEL August/September 2013