| | Faith that leads to love God | | | “Without faith it is impossible to please God” Heb 11:6. Great stalwarts of the Old Testament like, Noah, Abraham, Sarah and Moses will attest to this fact.
Faith, or rather the lack of it, is one of the major problems facing the Church today. If that were not the case, then we could not be witnesses to the sins of priests, the cowardice of many bishops and the materialism and worldliness of millions of men and women who call themselves Catholics.
The sad fact is that we do not have a clear understanding of what faith really is. Faith in God, supernatural faith, is not the same thing as trust in another person or believing what others tell us. It is not a feeling or emotion. St Thomas Aquinas says: “Faith is the assent of the mind to divine truths, commanded by the will which is moved by God through grace.”
The assent of faith is not like the assent we give to natural truths. In divine faith we do not see the connection between the subject and the predicate of affirmation such as, Three Persons in One God, God became man in Jesus Christ, |
| Baptism confers sanctifying grace, the life of the soul and so forth. We make these affirmations because of the testimony of God to their faith. In divine faith the mind assents because it is commanded by the will to assent. The motive here is the authority of God revealing himself. Since the act of faith is made on the authority of God who is supremely trustworthy, it also follows that faith is absolutely certain.
In his article “Faith: A Misunderstood Virtue”, which we carry in this issue, Mr John Young explains the different nuances of faith.
Those who do not have true faith should pray for it; and those who have it, should pray for an increase of it and for the great gift of final perseverance. For without faith it is impossible to please God.
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