The concept of Faith seems foolish to man. It defies man's tendencies: to find evidences they can see or touch, to appear 'rational' to others, and to succumb to a higher Authority (which he does not even see!). To some people, this act of succumbing is the deal-breaker; the concept of a higher Authority whom they must follow seems unthinkable to them that they are left with only one choice: to deny His existence and live as a soulless being who shall perish with the world.
Therefore, Faith must be something divine. We will not be capable of having Faith if this Faith is not given by God Himself. Faith is not something we "struggle" to acquire; it is an unanticipated, unsolicited, and at most times, undeserved gift. If we have even a little flicker of this gift, we remain connected to God.
Man has always thirsted for a genesis - an explanation on how things, including himself, came to be. He is boggled by the past and the future. And even if he does not know it, and no matter how hard he denies it, his mind shall forever brew this idea that there must be a higher Authority.
The only way to quench this thirst of God is to surrender to it; otherwise, you will get tired of running away from the Truth. This very act of acknowledging His Lordship is the first step to Faith. This is the first of the thousand steps in your relationship to God. This relationship, when nurtured, shall consume your being, greater and greater until this relationship becomes all that matters to you. It shall matter the most, and it should, because in reality, it is indeed the only thing that matters in the end.
While you constantly resist the Authority, you reject the gift of Faith that He had long sewn in your heart. Only by acknowledging His Lordship shall the thirst of the purpose of life be quenched; only by submitting to Him shall one become at peace with the present, past and future. For while a great part of man denies this submission to God, there is a small, whispering part of him that longs for this submission.
With this note, let me share with you a beautiful excerpt from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which so wonderfully summarizes this blog:
27 The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for:
The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. This invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and entrusts himself to his creator.
28 In many ways, throughout history down to the present day, men have given expression to their quest for God in their religious beliefs and behavior: in their prayers, sacrifices, rituals, meditations, and so forth. These forms of religious expression, despite the ambiguities they often bring with them, are so universal that one may well call man a religious being:
From one ancestor [God] made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him - though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For "in him we live and move and have our being."
29 But this "intimate and vital bond of man to God" (GS 19 § 1) can be forgotten, overlooked, or even explicitly rejected by man.3 Such attitudes can have different causes: revolt against evil in the world; religious ignorance or indifference; the cares and riches of this world; the scandal of bad example on the part of believers; currents of thought hostile to religion; finally, that attitude of sinful man which makes him hide from God out of fear and flee his call.
30 "Let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice." Although man can forget God or reject him, He never ceases to call every man to seek him, so as to find life and happiness. But this search for God demands of man every effort of intellect, a sound will, "an upright heart", as well as the witness of others who teach him to seek God.
You are great, O Lord, and greatly to be praised: great is your power and your wisdom is without measure. And man, so small a part of your creation, wants to praise you: this man, though clothed with mortality and bearing the evidence of sin and the proof that you withstand the proud. Despite everything, man, though but a small a part of your creation, wants to praise you. You yourself encourage him to delight in your praise, for you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.
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(This blog is inspired by the latest encyclical of our Holy Fathers, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, Lumen Fidei. I cannot describe how deeply moved I am by their writing. Read the encyclical here.)
