Chapter Three: Man’s Response to God(142-184)

Part One: The Profession of Faith, Section One: I Believe – We Believe

142 By his Revelation, “the invisible God, from the fullness of his love, addresses men as his friends, and moves among them, in order to invite and receive them into his own company.” The adequate response to this invitation is faith.

Different Levels of Faith

• intellectual belief – doesn’t have to change anything about your life
• emotional faith – feeling like a feeling of trust
• volitional faith – submit will and intellect
• saving faith – submit whole being

Article 1: I Believe

I. The Obedience of Faith

ob-audire – Latin, hear or listen to

1. Abraham – “father of all who believe”
   • fulfills the definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1: “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”
2. Mary – “Blessed is she who believed”
   • most perfectly embodies the obedience of faith
   • the Church venerates in Mary the purest realization of faith

To walk in faith is not to have telescopic vision. There may be a map or some information, but assent to God’s will by Abraham and Mary was given with limited information

II. “I Know Whom I Have Believed”

1. To believe in God alone
   • Fully and freely
   • we can trust in God fully in a way we cannot with flawed humans
2. To believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God
   • belief in God cannot be separated from the belief in Christ
3. To believe in the Holy Spirit
   • belief in Christ cannot be separated from the belief in his spirit
   • “The Church never ceases to proclaim her faith in one only God: Father, Son, Holy Spirit

III. The Characteristics of Faith

1. Faith is a grace
   • “Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him”
2. Faith is a human act
   • However, faith is no less a human act.
   • Human intellect and will cooperate with divine grace
   • “Believing is an act of the intellect assenting to the divine truth by command of the will moved by God through grace”
3. Faith and Understanding
   • God willed the external proofs of his Revelation.
   • Faith is “by no means a blind impulse of the mind”
   • “Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt.” John Henry Cardinal Newman
   • Truth cannot contradict truth
   • Good science and good faith will never be in opposition
4. The Freedom of Faith
   • man’s response to God must be free
5. Perseverance in faith
6. Faith – the beginning of eternal life
   • Faith gives us the ability to see the beatific vision.

Article 2: We Believe

Faith is personal, not isolated

I. “Lord, Look Upon the Faith of Your Church”

It is through the Church that we receive faith and baptism; she is our mother and teacher

II. The Language of Faith

We do not believe in formulas, but in those realities they express, which faith allows us to touch

The Church as our Mother, teaches us how to speak and understand the life of faith

III. Only One Faith

Most comes straight from St. Irenaeus, who has a direct connection to St. John the Apostle

The unity of the Catholic Church, regardless of language, culture, nations, people, etc.

In Brief

176 Faith is a personal adherence of the whole man to God who reveals himself. It involves an assent of the intellect and will to the self-revelation God has made through his deeds and words.

177 “To believe” has thus a twofold reference: to the person, and to the truth: to the truth, by trust in the person who bears witness to it.

178 We must believe in no one but God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

179 Faith is a supernatural gift from God. In order to believe, man needs the interior helps of the Holy Spirit.

180 “Believing” is a human act, conscious and free, corresponding to the dignity of the human person.

181 “Believing” is an ecclesial act. the Church’s faith precedes, engenders, supports and nourishes our faith. the Church is the mother of all believers. “No one can have God as Father who does not have the Church as Mother” (St. Cyprian, De unit. 6: PL 4, 519).

182 We believe all “that which is contained in the word of God, written or handed down, and which the Church proposes for belief as divinely revealed” (Paul VI, CPG # 20).

183 Faith is necessary for salvation. the Lord himself affirms: “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mk 16:16).

184 “Faith is a foretaste of the knowledge that will make us blessed in the life to come” (St. Thomas Aquinas. Comp. theol. 1, 2).