Dear Parishioners, Faith does not only imply perceiving divine truth but tending towards it in total conversion and belief. According to St. Augustine, believing in God means stretching out to him, moving towards him, advancing every day in the road which leads to him and finally reaching him – for our hearts are restless until they rest in him. The act of faith is a fundamental attitude, the disposition in which man corresponds through the power of grace to the summons and attractions of God who reveals himself. This dynamism of faith is at the same time the dynamism of charity and of hope, and they cannot be separated. Faith tends towards God in loving him: to believe in God is to tend lovingly to him. Faith tends towards God in the hope that what it proposes is possible. Thus, charity and hope are not added to faith as if it were from outside to complete a movement which exceeds its own power; they are rather explanations of what faith implies. In other words, faith is not an inert reality which needs outside help to get moving; neither is it some bottled stuff with the label “To be taken when things go wrong” such that when the storms are over, we then turn the other side of the label “Keep tightly closed”. Rather, faith has within it, charity and hope which are precisely the names of its own movement. Since the dynamism of faith is towards understanding, faith doesn’t eliminate or discourage questions; it raises them and sometimes does so in a fierce manner. So, one who questions and questions God himself, is not one who lacks faith but one who seeks a proper understanding of, and growth in faith – and if this questioning is not well handled it risks plunging one into a crisis.
At the heart of the Good News is the person of “Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” It is this which St. Paul proclaims as a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the sages and wise Greeks, but to those who believe, it is the power of God to save. (1 Cor 1:23). It is not as though reason is totally damned. No. It is always faith first, and then understanding. Like St. Anselm says, “credo ut intelligam - I believe so that I may understand”(Proslogion 1). St. Augustine puts it more imperatively, “Crede ut intellegas - believe so that you may understand.” St. Paul, proclaims the gospel “with great fear and trembling.” (1 Cor 1:3). He recognizes that the Gospel is best received in faith, and that this faith is itself a gift the Gospel gives, for thus is the mysterious power of the Gospel. So, Paul preached the spirit and power of the Gospel, so that our faith might rest not on human wisdom alone, but on the power of God that saves. What this means is that we should meditate on the Word of God with the openness of faith that lets God’s transforming grace effect in us the power of God that sets free from sorrow, bondage, sin, and ultimately from death. It is a call for us to humbly discover anew the power of the Gospel.