Youcat commented through CCC. Question n. 24 – Part II.

YOUCAT Question n. 24 - Part II. What does my faith have to do with the Church?

(Youcat answer - repeated) No one can believe alone and by himself, just as no one can live alone and by himself. We receive the faith from the Church and live it out in fellowship with the people with whom we share our faith.        

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 168) It is the Church that believes first, and so bears, nourishes and sustains my faith. Everywhere, it is the Church that first confesses the Lord: "Throughout the world the holy Church acclaims you", as we sing in the hymn Te Deum; with her and in her, we are won over and brought to confess: "I believe", "We believe". It is through the Church that we receive faith and new life in Christ by Baptism. In the Rituale Romanum, the minister of Baptism asks the catechumen: "What do you ask of God's Church?" and the answer is: "Faith." "What does faith offer you?" "Eternal life" (Roman Ritual, Rite of baptism of adults).

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) Faith is the most personal thing a person has, yet it is not a private matter. Anyone who wants to believe must be able to say both “I” and “we”, because a faith you cannot share and communicate would be irrational. The individual believer gives his free assent to the “we believe” of the Church. From her he received the faith. She was the one who handed it down through the centuries and then to him, preserved it from falsifications, and caused it to shine forth again and again. Believing is therefore participation in a common conviction. The faith of others supports me, just as the fervor of my faith enkindles and strengthens others. The Church emphasizes the “I” and the “we” of faith by using two professions of faith in her liturgies: the Apostles’ Creed, the Creed that begins with “I believe” (Credo), and the Great Creed of Nicaea-Constantinople, which in its original form starts with the words “We believe” (Credimus).

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 169) Salvation comes from God alone; but because we receive the life of faith through the Church, she is our mother: "We believe the Church as the mother of our new birth, and not in the Church as if she were the author of our salvation" (Faustus of Riez, De Spiritu Sancto 1, 2: PL 62, 11). Because she is our mother, she is also our teacher in the faith. (CCC 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). [End]

(The next question is: Why does the faith require definitions and formulas?)