Transcript

The grace of God is incredibly powerful and has many different effects in our lives.

God gives us sanctifying grace in the depths of our souls, but this grace overflows into our minds and hearts and results in the virtues of faith, hope, and charity.

Faith, hope, and charity are called theological virtues because they direct us to God so that we might know and love Him.

They establish us in personal contact with the Holy Trinity, and shape us more and more according to God's image.

This is why we'll be talking a lot about the theological virtues over the next few sessions.

They're at the heart of the Christian life.

They're at the heart of Christian morality.

We already talked a little bit about the virtue of faith earlier when we were speaking of divine revelation, but it's helpful to consider the role faith plays in the life of an individual Christian.

Faith is a very common word in our language, but when people typically use it, they're saying, Oh, I have faith in you, or, I'll take it on faith.

Those instances are typically referring to a relationship of trust or hope that one person has in another.

But for us as Christians, faith also has a transcendent meaning.

Supernatural faith, that is, the theological virtue of faith, is about God.

The virtue of faith is like a supernatural light.

By faith, we freely accept and assent to the whole truth that God has revealed.

It leads to a- a spiritual confidence backed by divine truthfulness.

It's divine power that brings about and strengthens our faith.

The theological virtue of faith is supernatural and divine, since it involves God elevating our minds and moving our wills to freely assent to what he's revealed.

Through faith, we come into contact with Him and begin to know divine mysteries we could never discover on our own.

God, as our Almighty Creator, is able to work quietly, yet powerfully within the depths of our souls to bring about and strengthen our faith.

Faith calls for a certain surrender of the mind to God, which we call the obedience of faith.

Faith gives us certitude about God, but it also gives us certitude about the world and as it stands in relation to Him.

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, and the conviction of things not seen.

Saint Thomas Aquinas teaches that professing the faith is not merely a matter of words.

Rather, by professing the propositions or articles of the creed, our minds actually make contact with God, with God Himself.

Our minds are knit to Him.

We don't just believe that God exists, and we don't just believe the things that God tells us.

By faith, we believe God Himself, who is the truth.

Since faith puts us in contact with God, the things we believe by faith are critically important.

Catholics must profess the faith in its entirety without neglecting or rejecting anything.

We manifest and renew our beliefs each Sunday at every Sunday Mass, through the profession of faith, also called the Creed.

If we understand faith as a relationship, it's easy to see the danger of being a selective believer.

A selective believer is one who chooses certain teachings to believe and rejects others.

Sometimes this is called Cafeteria Catholicism.

But being Catholic is not an a la carte experience where we choose certain beliefs we like and we leave behind others that we don't.

By its nature, faith involves a whole acceptance of God and what He's revealed, because it establishes us in a relationship of trust and obedience to Him, to God who is truth itself and who cannot deceive us.

The selective believer puts his belief in jeopardy because he undermines the very foundation of his belief, that loving and trusting relationship with Almighty God.

The true believer accepts what the Church proposes as definitively revealed by God.

The Church is God's chosen witness, and Her authority is ultimately founded on the witness of the Apostles.

A person can sin against faith through doubt, that is, to reject what God's revealed.

And this can be a partial rejection of the faith or a complete rejection of the faith, which we call apostasy.

Also, to take part in superstitious, occult practices, such as visiting a palm reader or using tarot cards or something like that, is a sin against faith.

Many people freely engage in these practices lightheartedly, but it's not a joking matter.

Such practices seriously undermine one's relationship with God and expose one to the influence of evil spirits.Worries about the faith, even sometimes serious worries about matters of faith, that's not necessarily sinful.

For example, if someone finds discrepancies in the Bible and that calls into question the authority of the Bible for them, it's good for them to seek out an answer to this question.

This is not the sin of infidelity as long as one has not withdrawn a sense to the faith, as long as one has not undermined that fundamental relationship of trust with God.

Since the object of faith remains somewhat obscure, it's normal that our intellects will continue to churn and continue to pose questions even though sometimes those questions will be hard to answer.

To ask questions about the faith or to seek a better explanation of what one believes is not the same as doubting.

It's good to probe deeper into divine mysteries.

Faith seeks understanding.

It's important, however, not to delay our belief in search of a perfect understanding.

It would be wrong for me to think, I'll believe in this teaching only when it makes perfect sense to me.

Our human reason is limited and so must surrender to God in the obedience of faith in order to know divine truths.

If we withheld our belief until we completely comprehended all divine mysteries, we would be waiting forever.

A full and mature understanding of many matters of faith is only possible from a disposition, from a perspective of belief.

We believe so that we may understand.

Catholics must also be content to know that answers to some questions will remain obscure and mysterious in this life.

God has given us everything we need for our salvation, but not necessarily everything we need to satisfy our present curiosity.

While faith is a work of God in us, it's also something that we should nurture and nourish.

Catholics have a responsibility to continue to learn more about their faith by reading the scriptures, the catechism, and various spiritual books.

Catholics should also take advantage of adult education programs, Bible studies, other groups like that that are designed to enrich our faith.

Our understanding of the faith must grow as we grow because an adult life, an adult life of faith, needs an adult understanding.

Catholics who've received the sacraments of initiation and who practice the faith wholeheartedly are confirmed and strengthened by God through the supernatural sense of the faith, or sensus fidei.

We see this at work when there's a universal consent among the members of the church on matters of faith and morals, and this sense also allows believers to reject instinctively whatever contradicts the faith.

We should know, too, that the Holy Spirit helps us believers to penetrate into divine mysteries through the gift of understanding and also helps us to see the surpassing value of spiritual things through the gift of wisdom.

It's common for someone recently introduced to the Catholic faith to find certain teachings difficult to understand or contrary to their former outlook.

When certain teachings seem hard to understand or difficult to accept, it's important to approach them with the right disposition.

Trusting in God who is always truthful, one could pray, I believe, Lord.

Help my unbelief.

Or whenever someone has a particular difficulty with some particular teaching of the faith, it's best to seek out a further explanation from an official guide, whether it be a written guide like the catechism or someone we ask in person like a priest or trusted Catholic teacher of the faith.

The Catholic faith is an interconnected whole that combines belief and practice, and many converts find that faith takes on a complete comprehensive clarity for them only after being fully initiated and beginning to practice the faith.

Many people set faith and reason in opposition as if belief were to make one irrational.

However, we know that faith never contradicts reason.

By faith, our minds are supernaturally elevated to know divine mysteries.

So in this sense, faith is above reason, but it's never against it.

In fact, faith and reason are fundamentally in harmony.

Indeed, one needs to think in order to believe.

One needs to grasp some measure what it is being proposed for belief.

For example, that Christ is true God and true man in order to make an active faith in what's proposed.

If there seems to be a contradiction between a finding of academic research and the truth of the Catholic faith, there are not two truths.

Either the finding of the research is false or the truth of the faith is not properly understood.

So, having this perspective and this understanding of faith and reason allows Catholics to freely engage in academic and scientific pursuits without fear of discovering something that will contradict their faith or call it into question.

Now that we've spoken about the theological virtue of faith, we can move on to another important virtue, hope.

Until then, may God bless you.