Commentary on Catechism of the Catholic Church The Characteristics of Faith

Faith is foremost a grace of God, it means faith comes from God. Before we can have faith, the Holy Spirit must have helped us first interiorly, who moves our heart and converts us to God, opens the eyes of our mind nad makes it easy for us to accept and believe the truth. Belief is possible only by grace and the interior helps of the Holy Spirit. Yet it is also true that faith is a human act. To trust in God is not contrary to our freedom or dignity, just as it is not contrary to dignity to trust in man, then it is even less contrary to trust in Him who cannot deceive nor be deceived. In faith, the human intellect and will cooperate with divine grace.

We believe in the truths of God not because of their logical appearance, but because they come from God who is infallible. However, for the sake of reason, God wills external proofs of His Revelation, such as the miracles of Christ and the saints, prophecies, the Church’s growth and holiness, and her fruitfulness and stability. These show that faith is by no means a blind impulse of the mind. Faith is more certain than all human knowledge despite obscurities and difficulties, as God is the source of faith. Faith seeks understanding as it is natural for the believer to desire greater knowledge and understanding of He who is the object of faith and the giver of that same faith. Faith is above reason, but it is not in contradiction with reason, for both comes from God. The light of God and the light of reason cannot contradict each other, as truth does not contradict itself. Therefore, science cannot and will never contradict faith. If there are indeed apparent contradictions, science must be wrong or our understanding of the faith is wrong.

Tbe response of faith must be a free act without coercion. While God predetermines all free acts of man, indeed he still acts according to his will which is determined by his nature. As such, obligation and duty to God exists without coercion towards man. What this means is that God will not make man act against his own will and desires. Man will always act according to the will that has been set out by God before him. This is demonstrated by Christ who never imposed force on those He teaches, but instead merely invites them to follow Him. Then they, out of their own freedom, follow Christ.

Faith is necessary for salvation, as Scripture testifies that 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. Faith can be lost if we do not take care of it properly. St. Paul testifies to this in Scripture, that some people have made a shipwreck out of their faith. To properly endure, we must nourish our faith with the Word of God, pray to God to increase our faith, work it through charity, abounding in hope, and rooted int eh faith of the Church.

Faith is the beginning of eternal life as it allows us to taste in advance the light of the beatific vision when we shall see God face to face as He is. However, we perceive God as in a mirror, dimly, or in part only. Even though enlightened, there can be great trials of darkness of the faith. The world we live in often contradict the promises of the faith and the Good News, this can shake our faith and tempt us to lose it. It is then we must turn to the witnesses of faith, to Abraham who hoped against hope, and the Virgin Mary who joined her Son in His sorrows.

A note from my benefactor. While faith can indeed be lost, but for the elect, faith is only lost temporarily and eventually will be regained. However, for the reprobates, the attainment of faith is temporary or it might not even be a true faith. Let us imagine faith as a plant. It can be developing but due to the temptations and disturbances of the world, it is uprooted. Yet then the same plant is restored by He who plants it to the soil, after preparing that soil better. And for those who are not destined to salvation, the plant perhaps was not meant to be there in the first place, but it is by the secondary effects of planting the seeds everywhere.


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