25. How does man respond to God who reveals himself?
(Comp 25) Sustained by divine grace, we respond to God with the obedience of faith, which means the full surrender of ourselves to God and the acceptance of his truth insofar as it is guaranteed by the One who is Truth itself.
“In Brief”
(CCC 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.
To deepen and explain
(CCC 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" (DV 2; cf. Col 1:15; 1 Tim 1:17; Ex 33:11; Jn 15:14-15; Bar 3:38 (Vulg.)). The adequate response to this invitation is faith. (CCC 143) By faith, man completely submits his intellect and his will to God (Cf. DV 5). With his whole being man gives his assent to God the revealer. Sacred Scripture calls this human response to God, the author of revelation, "the obedience of faith" (Cf. Rom 1:5; 16:26).
On reflection
(CCC 1102) "By the saving word of God, faith … is nourished in the hearts of believers. By this faith then the congregation of the faithful begins and grows" (PO 4). The proclamation does not stop with a teaching; it elicits the response of faith as consent and commitment, directed at the covenant between God and his people. Once again it is the Holy Spirit who gives the grace of faith, strengthens it and makes it grow in the community. The liturgical assembly is first of all a communion in faith. (CCC 2087) Our moral life has its source in faith in God who reveals his love to us. St. Paul speaks of the "obedience of faith" (Rom 1:5; 16:26) as our first obligation. He shows that "ignorance of God" is the principle and explanation of all moral deviations (cf. Rom 1:18-32). Our duty toward God is to believe in him and to bear witness to him.
(Next question: Who are the principal witnesses of the obedience of faith in the Sacred Scriptures?)
1 comment:
Thank you so much for this. The truth of the revelation of God is guaranteed by God who is the truth himself. We believe, not because the revealed truths are understood by the human sense of reason, neither because they can be perceived by the senses! But because God says so that is why we believe.
I love being Catholic. She alone has that authority to explain the CORRECT MEANING of the scriptural texts.
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