A living faith

“Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and all that he has revealed to us and that the Church proposes for our belief because God is Truth itself. By faith the human person freely commits himself to God.”

Compendium of the catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 386.

“Faith is a decision involving one’s whole existence. It is an encounter, a dialogue, a communion of love and of life between the believer and Jesus Christ, the Way, and the Truth, and the Life (cf. John 14:6). It entails an act of trusting abandonment to Christ, which enables us to live as he lived (cf. Galatians 2:20), in profound love of God and of our brothers and sisters” (Veritatis Splendor, n. 88).

Consequently, it is through this virtue that the person is able to believe in God and to respond to this Call for union by seeking to do his will in everything, since it is only through faith that “man freely commits his entire self to God” (Dei Verbum, n. 5).

Faith makes the person able to meet God

It is through the virtue of faith, that the person is able to meet with God. This is because, as Saint John of the Cross explains, “Faith darkens and empties the intellect of all its natural understanding and thereby prepares it for union with the divine wisdom” (John of the Cross, The Dark Night, Book 2, Chapter 21, n.11).

“Faith […], gives and communicates God himself to us” (John of the Cross, The Spiritual Canticle, Stanza 12 n.4).

“the likeness between faith and God is so close that no other difference exists than that between believing in God and seeing him. Just as God is infinite, faith proposes him to us as infinite. Just as there are three Persons in one God, it presents him to us in this way. And just as God is darkness to our intellect, so faith dazzles and blinds us. Only by means of faith, in divine light exceeding all understanding, does God manifest himself to the soul. The greater one’s faith the closer is one’s union with God“ (John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 2, Chapter 9, n.1).

“Faith darkens and empties the intellect of all its natural understanding and thereby prepares it for union with the divine wisdom.”

John of the Cross, The Dark Night, Book 2, Chapter 21, n.11.

This concept of faith in Saint John can be further explained by the following example given by Federico Ruiz during a retreat to a group of Nuns in Germany. He explains,

“Faith is a capacity God has given to man enabling him to perceive God. An example: a radio or television set has a transmitter and a receiver. The receiver by itself is lifeless; there must be a transmitter broadcasting the programme. When we speak of faith as a theological virtue, it is, of course, very important that there is a sender or transmitter. In the poem of the Fountain, it is of the utmost importance that there is a fountain that streams and flows. The task of the human receiver is to prepare for the reception of the programme. The more closely we adapt ourselves to the sender, the better is the reception. When television was first invented, only two-dimensional, black and white pictures could be viewed. Later there came colour television. Soon we shall have three-dimensional pictures in colour. The same is true of faith. There are people who can only see in black and white, and others who see in colour and three-dimensionally. It all depends on the capacity, the virtue, the attitude of faith. The theological virtue of faith is a gift from God.”

Federico Ruiz Salvador, Saint John of the Cross. The saint and his teaching, Darlington Carmel, Germany 1988, p. 27.

Accordingly, it is due to this gift of faith that the person is able to encounter Christ. It is this encounter with God through faith, that changes the mind and heart of the person and makes it more able to love God and others: since faith works “through love” (Galatians 5:6) and “faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead” (James 2:17).

It is this encounter with God through faith, that changes the mind and heart of the person and makes it more able to love God and others