Youcat commented through CCC. Question n. 21 – Part III.

YOUCAT Question n. 21 - Part III. Faith what is it?

(Youcat answer - repeated) Faith is knowledge and trust. It has seven characteristics: Faith is a sheer gift of God, which we receive when we fervently ask for it. Faith is the supernatural power that is absolutely necessary if we are to attain salvation. Faith requires the free will and clear understanding of a person when he accepts the divine invitation. Faith is absolutely certain, because Jesus guarantees it. Faith is incomplete unless it leads to active love. Faith grows when we listen more and more carefully to God’s Word and enter a lively exchange with him in prayer. Faith gives us even now a foretaste of the joy of heaven.       

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 158) "Faith seeks understanding" (St. Anselm, Prosl. prooem.: PL 153, 225A): it is intrinsic to faith that a believer desires to know better the One in whom he has put his faith, and to understand better what He has revealed; a more penetrating knowledge will in turn call forth a greater faith, increasingly set afire by love. The grace of faith opens "the eyes of your hearts" (Eph 1:18) to a lively understanding of the contents of Revelation: that is, of the totality of God's plan and the mysteries of faith, of their connection with each other and with Christ, the centre of the revealed mystery. "The same Holy Spirit constantly perfects faith by his gifts, so that Revelation may be more and more profoundly understood" (DV 5). In the words of St. Augustine, "I believe, in order to understand; and I understand, the better to believe" (St. Augustine, Sermo 43, 7, 9: PL 38, 257-258).    

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) Many people say that to believe is not enough for them; they want to know. The word “believe”, however, has two completely different meanings. If a parachutist asks the clerk at the airport, “Is the parachute packed safely?” and the other man answers casually, “Hmm, I believe so”, then that will not be enough for him; he would like to know it for sure. But if he has asked a friend to pack the parachute, then the friend will answer the same question by saying, “Yes, I did it personally. You can trust me!” And to that the parachutist will reply, “Yes, I believe you.” This belief is much more than knowing; it means assurance. And that is the kind of belief that prompted Abraham to travel to the Promised Land; that is the faith that caused the martyrs to stand fast till death; that is the faith that still today upholds Christians in persecution. A faith that encompasses the whole person.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 157) Faith is certain. It is more certain than all human knowledge because it is founded on the very word of God who cannot lie. To be sure, revealed truths can seem obscure to human reason and experience, but "the certainty that the divine light gives is greater than that which the light of natural reason gives" (St. Thomas Aquinas, STh II-II 171, 5, obj. 3). "Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt" (John Henry Cardinal Newman, Apologia pro vita sua (London: Longman, 1878) 239). (CCC 161) Believing in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent him for our salvation is necessary for obtaining that salvation (Cf. Mk 16:16; Jn 3:36; 6:40 et al.). “Since ‘without faith it is impossible to please (God)’ and to attain to the fellowship of his sons, therefore without faith no one has ever attained justification, nor will anyone obtain eternal life ‘but he who endures to the end.’” [Dei Filius 3: DS 3012; cf. Mt 10:22; 24:13 and Heb11:6; Council of Trent DS 1532].

(This question: Faith what is it? is continued)

Youcat commented through CCC. Question n. 21 – Part II.

YOUCAT Question n. 21 - Part II. Faith what is it?  

(Youcat answer - repeated) Faith is knowledge and trust. It has seven characteristics: Faith is a sheer gift of God, which we receive when we fervently ask for it. Faith is the supernatural power that is absolutely necessary if we are to attain salvation. Faith requires the free will and clear understanding of a person when he accepts the divine invitation. Faith is absolutely certain, because Jesus guarantees it. Faith is incomplete unless it leads to active love. Faith grows when we listen more and more carefully to God’s Word and enter a lively exchange with him in prayer. Faith gives us even now a foretaste of the joy of heaven.        

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 154) Believing is possible only by grace and the interior helps of the Holy Spirit. But it is no less true that believing is an authentically human act. Trusting in God and cleaving to the truths he has revealed are contrary neither to human freedom nor to human reason. Even in human relations it is not contrary to our dignity to believe what other persons tell us about themselves and their intentions, or to trust their promises (for example, when a man and a woman marry) to share a communion of life with one another. If this is so, still less is it contrary to our dignity to "yield by faith the full submission of... intellect and will to God who reveals" (Dei Filius: 3: DS 3008), and to share in an interior communion with him. (CCC 155) In faith, the human intellect and will co-operate 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" (St. Thomas Aquinas, STh II-II, 2, 9; cf. Dei Filius 3; DS 3010).    

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) Many people say that to believe is not enough for them; they want to know. The word “believe”, however, has two completely different meanings. If a parachutist asks the clerk at the airport, “Is the parachute packed safely?” and the other man answers casually, “Hmm, I believe so”, then that will not be enough for him; he would like to know it for sure. But if he has asked a friend to pack the parachute, then the friend will answer the same question by saying, “Yes, I did it personally. You can trust me!” And to that the parachutist will reply, “Yes, I believe you.” This belief is much more than knowing; it means assurance. And that is the kind of belief that prompted Abraham to travel to the Promised Land; that is the faith that caused the martyrs to stand fast till death; that is the faith that still today upholds Christians in persecution. A faith that encompasses the whole person.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 156) What moves us to believe is not the fact that revealed truths appear as true and intelligible in the light of our natural reason: we believe "because of the authority of God himself who reveals them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived" (Dei Filius 3: DS 3008). So "that the submission of our faith might nevertheless be in accordance with reason, God willed that external proofs of his Revelation should be joined to the internal helps of the Holy Spirit” (Dei Filius 3: DS 3009). Thus the miracles of Christ and the saints, prophecies, the Church's growth and holiness, and her fruitfulness and stability "are the most certain signs of divine Revelation, adapted to the intelligence of all"; they are "motives of credibility" (motiva credibilitatis), which show that the assent of faith is "by no means a blind impulse of the mind" (Dei Filius 3: DS 3008-3010; cf. Mk 16 20; Heb 2:4).        

(This question: Faith what is it? is continued)

Youcat commented through CCC. Question n. 21 – Part I.

YOUCAT Question n. 21 - Part I. Faith what is it?

(Youcat answer) Faith is knowledge and trust. It has seven characteristics: Faith is a sheer gift of God, which we receive when we fervently ask for it. Faith is the supernatural power that is absolutely necessary if we are to attain salvation. Faith requires the free will and clear understanding of a person when he accepts the divine invitation. Faith is absolutely certain, because Jesus guarantees it. Faith is incomplete unless it leads to active love. Faith grows when we listen more and more carefully to God’s Word and enter a lively exchange with him in prayer. Faith gives us even now a foretaste of the joy of heaven.       

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 153) When St. Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus declared to him that this revelation did not come "from flesh and blood", but from "my Father who is in heaven" (Mt 16:17; cf. Gal 1:15; Mt 11:25). Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him. "Before this faith can be exercised, man must have the grace of God to move and assist him; he must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens the eyes of the mind and 'makes it easy for all to accept and believe the truth'" (DV 5; cf. DS 377; 3010).   

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) Many people say that to believe is not enough for them; they want to know. The word “believe”, however, has two completely different meanings. If a parachutist asks the clerk at the airport, “Is the parachute packed safely?” and the other man answers casually, “Hmm, I believe so”, then that will not be enough for him; he would like to know it for sure. But if he has asked a friend to pack the parachute, then the friend will answer the same question by saying, “Yes, I did it personally. You can trust me!” And to that the parachutist will reply, “Yes, I believe you.” This belief is much more than knowing; it means assurance. And that is the kind of belief that prompted Abraham to travel to the Promised Land; that is the faith that caused the martyrs to stand fast till death; that is the faith that still today upholds Christians in persecution. A faith that encompasses the whole person.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 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). (CCC 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).      

(This question: Faith what is it? is continued)

Youcat commented through CCC. Question n. 20 – Part II.

YOUCAT Question n. 20 - Part II. How can we respond to God when he speaks to us?

(Youcat answer - repeated) To respond to God means to believe him.        

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 145) The Letter to the Hebrews, in its great eulogy of the faith of Israel's ancestors, lays special emphasis on Abraham's faith: "By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was to go" (Heb 11:8; cf. Gen 12:1-4). By faith, he lived as a stranger and pilgrim in the promised land (Cf. Gen 23:4). By faith, Sarah was given to conceive the son of the promise. And by faith Abraham offered his only son in sacrifice (Cf. Heb 11:17).     

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) Anyone who wants to believe needs a heart that is ready to listen (see 1 Kings 3:9). In many ways God seeks contact with us. In every human encounter, in every moving experience of nature, in every apparent coincidence, in every challenge, every suffering, there is a hidden message from God to us. He speaks even more clearly to us when he turns to us in his Word or in the voice of our conscience. He addresses us as friends. Therefore we, too, should respond as friends and believe him, trust him completely, learn to understand him better and better, and accept his will without reservation.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 148) The Virgin Mary most perfectly embodies the obedience of faith. By faith Mary welcomes the tidings and promise brought by the angel Gabriel, believing that "with God nothing will be impossible" and so giving her assent: "Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be [done] to me according to your word" (Lk 1:37-38; cf. Gen 18:14). Elizabeth greeted her: "Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord" (Lk 1:45). It is for this faith that all generations have called Mary blessed (Cf. Lk 1:48). (CCC 149) Throughout her life and until her last ordeal (Cf. Lk 2:35) when Jesus her son died on the cross, Mary's faith never wavered. She never ceased to believe in the fulfilment of God's word. And so the Church venerates in Mary the purest realization of faith.     

(The next question is: Faith what is it?)

Youcat commented through CCC. Question n. 20 – Part I.

YOUCAT Question n. 20 - Part I. How can we respond to God when he speaks to us?

(Youcat answer) To respond to God means to believe him.     

A deepening through CCC

(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). (CCC 144) To obey (from the Latin ob-audire, to "hear or listen to") in faith is to submit freely to the word that has been heard, because its truth is guaranteed by God, who is Truth itself. Abraham is the model of such obedience offered us by Sacred Scripture. The Virgin Mary is its most perfect embodiment.      

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) Anyone who wants to believe needs a heart that is ready to listen (see 1 Kings 3:9). In many ways God seeks contact with us. In every human encounter, in every moving experience of nature, in every apparent coincidence, in every challenge, every suffering, there is a hidden message from God to us. He speaks even more clearly to us when he turns to us in his Word or in the voice of our conscience. He addresses us as friends. Therefore we, too, should respond as friends and believe him, trust him completely, learn to understand him better and better, and accept his will without reservation.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 146) Abraham thus fulfils the definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1: "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Heb 11:1): "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness" (Rom 4:3; cf. Gen 15:6). Because he was "strong in his faith", Abraham became the "father of all who believe" (Rom 4:11, 18; 4:20; cf. Gen 15:5). (CCC 147) The Old Testament is rich in witnesses to this faith. The Letter to the Hebrews proclaims its eulogy of the exemplary faith of the ancestors who "received divine approval" (Heb 11:2, 39). Yet "God had foreseen something better for us": the grace of believing in his Son Jesus, "the pioneer and perfecter of our faith" (Heb 11:40; 12:2).       

(This question: How can we respond to God when he speaks to us? is continued)