Michael August - September 2013

Far from divorcing us from reality, our faith in the

Son of God made man in Jesus of Nazareth enables

us to grasp reality’s deepest meaning and to see how

much God loves this world and is constantly guiding

it towards himself. This leads us, as Christians, to live

our lives in this world with ever greater commitment

and intensity.

Faith and truth

23.

Unless you believe, you will not understand

(cf. Is 7:9). The Greek version of the Hebrew Bible,

the Septuagint translation produced in Alexandria,

gives the above rendering of the words spoken by the

prophet Isaiah to King Ahaz... Terrified by the might

of his enemies, the king seeks the security that an al-

liance with the great Assyrian empire can offer. The

prophet tells him instead to trust completely in the

solid and steadfast rock which is the God of Israel...

The firm foundation that Isaiah promises to the

king is indeed grounded in an understanding of God’s

activity and the unity which he gives to human life and

to the history of his people. The prophet challenges

the king, and us, to understand the Lord’s ways, see-

ing in God’s faithfulness the wise plan which governs

the ages...

24. Read in this light, the prophetic text leads to

one conclusion: we need knowledge, we need truth,

because without these we cannot stand firm, we can-

not move forward. Faith without truth does not save, it

does not provide a sure footing. It remains a beautiful

story, the projection of our deep yearning for happi-

ness, something capable of satisfying us to the extent

that we are willing to deceive ourselves. Either that,

or it is reduced to a lofty sentiment which brings con-

solation and cheer, yet remains prey to the vagaries

of our spirit and the changing seasons, incapable of

sustaining a steady journey through life. If such were

faith, King Ahaz would be right not to stake his life and

the security of his kingdom on a feeling. But precisely

because of its intrinsic link to truth, faith is instead able

to offer a new light, superior to the king’s calculations,

for it sees further into the distance and takes into ac-

count the hand of God, who remains faithful to his

covenant and his promises.

25. Today more than ever, we need to be re-

minded of this bond between faith and truth, given the

crisis of truth in our age. In contemporary culture, we

often tend to consider the only real truth to be that of

technology: truth is what we succeed in building and

measuring by our scientific know-how, truth is what

works and what makes life easier and more comfort-

able. Nowadays this appears as the only truth that is

certain, the only truth that can be shared, the only

truth that can serve as a basis for discussion or for

common undertakings.

Yet at the other end of the scale we are willing

to allow for subjective truths of the individual, which

consist in fidelity to his or her deepest convictions,

yet these are truths valid only for that individual and

not capable of being proposed to others in an effort

to serve the common good. But Truth itself, the truth

which would comprehensively explain our life as in-

dividuals and in society, is regarded with suspicion.

Surely this kind of truth — we hear it said — is what

was claimed by the great totalitarian movements of

the last century, a truth that imposed its own world

view in order to crush the actual lives of individuals.

In the end, what we are left with is relativism, in which

the question of universal truth — and ultimately this

means the question of God — is no longer relevant.

It would be logical, from this point of view, to at-

tempt to sever the bond between religion and truth,

because it seems to lie at the root of fanaticism, which

proves oppressive for anyone who does not share the

same beliefs. In this regard, though, we can speak of

a massive amnesia in our contemporary world. The

question of truth is really a question of memory, deep

memory, for it deals with something prior to ourselves

and can succeed in uniting us in a way that transcends

our petty and limited individual consciousness. It is a

question about the origin of all that is, in whose light

we can glimpse the goal and thus the meaning of our

common path.

The Church, mother of our faith

38. The transmission of the faith not only brings

light to men and women in every place; it travels

through time, passing from one generation to another.

Because faith is born of an encounter which takes

place in history and lights up our journey through

time, it must be passed on in every age. It is through

an unbroken chain of witnesses that we come to see

the face of Jesus. But how is this possible? How can

we be certain, after all these centuries, that we have

encountered the “real Jesus”?...

Faith’s past, that act of Jesus’ love which brought

new life to the world, comes down to us through the

memory of others — witnesses — and is kept alive

in that one remembering subject which is the Church.

The Church is a Mother who teaches us to speak the

language of faith...

The sacraments and the

transmission of faith

40. For transmitting a purely doctrinal content, an

idea might suffice, or perhaps a book, or the repetition

of a spoken message. But what is communicated in

the Church, what is handed down in her living Trad-

ition, is the new light born of an encounter with the

true God, a light which touches us at the core of our

being and engages our minds, wills and emotions,

opening us to relationships lived in communion. There

is a special means for passing down this fullness, a

means capable of engaging the entire person, body

and spirit, interior life and relationships with others.

It is the sacraments, celebrated in the Church’s

liturgy. The sacraments communicate an incarnate

memory, linked to the times and places of our lives,

linked to all our senses; in them the whole person is

engaged as a member of a living subject and part of a

network of communitarian relationships...

Faith, prayer and the Decalogue

46. Two other elements are essential in the faith-

ful transmission of the Church’s memory. First, the

Lord’s Prayer, the “Our Father”.

Here Christians learn to share

in Christ’s own spiritual ex-

perience and to see all things

through his eyes. From him

who is light from light, the on-

ly-begotten Son of the Father,

we come to know God and can

thus kindle in others the desire

to draw near to him.

Similarly important is

the link between faith and

the Decalogue. Faith, as we

have said, takes the form of

a journey, a path to be fol-

lowed, which begins with an

encounter with the living God.

It is in the light of faith, of

complete entrustment to the

God who saves, that the Ten

Commandments take on their

deepest truth, as seen in the

words which introduce them:

“I am the Lord your God, who

brought you out of the land of

Egypt” (Ex 20:2). The Deca-

logue is not a set of negative

commands, but concrete dir-

ections for emerging from the

desert of the selfish and self-

enclosed ego in order to enter

into dialogue with God, to be

embraced by his mercy and then to bring that mercy

to others.

Faith thus professes the love of God, origin and

upholder of all things, and lets itself be guided by this

love in order to journey towards the fullness of com-

munion with God. The Decalogue appears as the path

of gratitude, the response of love, made possible be-

cause in faith we are receptive to the experience of

God’s transforming love for us. And this path receives

new light from Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the

Mount (cf. Mt 5-7).

These, then, are the four elements which comprise

the storehouse of memory which the Church hands

down: the profession of faith, the celebration of the

sacraments, the path of the ten commandments, and

prayer. The Church’s catechesis has traditionally been

structured around these four elements; this includes

the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is a fun-

damental aid for that unitary act with which the Church

communicates the entire content of her faith: “all that

she herself is, and all that she believes”.

Faith and the common good

51. Faith does not draw us away from the world

or prove irrelevant to the concrete concerns of the

men and women of our time. Without a love which

is trustworthy, nothing could

truly keep men and women

united. Human unity would be

conceivable only on the basis

of utility, on a calculus of con-

flicting interests or on fear,

but not on the goodness of

living together, not on the joy

which the mere presence of

others can give. Faith makes

us appreciate the architec-

ture of human relationships

because it grasps their ultim-

ate foundation and definitive

destiny in God, in his love, and

thus sheds light on the art of

building; as such it becomes a

service to the common good.

Faith is truly a good for every-

one; it is a common good. Its

light does not simply brighten

the interior of the Church, nor

does it serve solely to build an

eternal city in the hereafter; it

helps us build our societies in

such a way that they can jour-

ney towards a future of hope.

Faith and the family

52. The first setting in

which faith enlightens the hu-

man city is the family. I think

first and foremost of the stable union of man and

woman in marriage. This union is born of their love,

as a sign and presence of God’s own love, and of the

acknowledgment and acceptance of the goodness of

sexual differentiation, whereby spouses can become

one flesh (cf. Gen 2:24) and are enabled to give birth to

a new life, a manifestation of the Creator’s goodness,

wisdom and loving plan...

53. In the family, faith accompanies every age of

life, beginning with childhood: children learn to trust

in the love of their parents. This is why it is so import-

ant that within their families parents encourage shared

expressions of faith which can help children gradually

to mature in their own faith...

We have all seen, during World Youth Days, the

joy that young people show in their faith and their

desire for an ever more solid and generous life of

“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.”

(

Lumen Fidei

, 18.)

MICHAEL August/September 2013