CHAPTER THREE - MAN'S RESPONSE TO GOD
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."[1] The adequate response to this invitation is faith.
143 By faith, man completely submits his intellect and his will to God.[2] 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".[3]
ARTICLE I - I BELIEVE
I. THE OBEDIENCE OF FAITH
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.
Abraham - "father of all who believe"
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."[4] By faith, he lived as a stranger and pilgrim in the
promised land.[5] By faith, Sarah was given to conceive the son of the promise. And by
faith Abraham offered his only son in sacrifice.[6]
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":[7] "Abraham believed God, and
it was reckoned to him as righteousness."[8] Because he was "strong in his faith",
Abraham became the "father of all who believe".[9]
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".[10] Yet "God had foreseen something better for us": the grace of believing in
his Son Jesus, "the pioneer and perfecter of our faith".[11]
Mary - "Blessed is she who believed"
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."[12] Elizabeth greeted her:
"Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her
from the Lord."[13] It is for this faith that all generations have called Mary blessed.[14]
149 Throughout her life and until her last ordeal[15] 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.
II. "I KNOW WHOM I HAVE BELIEVED"[16]
To believe in God alone
150 Faith is first of all a personal adherence of man to God. At the same time, and
inseparably, it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed. As personal
adherence to God and assent to his truth, Christian faith differs from our faith in any
human person. It is right and just to entrust oneself wholly to God and to believe
absolutely what he says. It would be futile and false to place such faith in a creature.[17]
To believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God
151 For a Christian, believing in God cannot be separated from believing in the One he
sent, his "beloved Son", in whom the Father is "well pleased"; God tells us to listen to
him.[18] The Lord himself said to his disciples: "Believe in God, believe also in me."[19]
We can believe in Jesus Christ because he is himself God, the Word made flesh: "No
one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made
him known."[20] Because he "has seen the Father", Jesus Christ is the only one who
knows him and can reveal him.[21]
To believe in the Holy Spirit
152 One cannot believe in Jesus Christ without sharing in his Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit
who reveals to men who Jesus is. For "no one can say "Jesus is Lord", except by the
Holy Spirit",[22] who "searches everything, even the depths of God. . No one
comprehends the thoughts of God, except the Spirit of God."[23] Only God knows
God completely: we believe in the Holy Spirit because he is God.
The Church never ceases to proclaim her faith in one only God: Father, Son and Holy
Spirit.
III. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF FAITH
Faith is a grace
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".[24] 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.'"[25]
Faith is a human act
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 is 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",[26] and to share in an interior communion with
him.
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."[27]
Faith and understanding
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".[28] 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."[29] 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".[30]
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."[31] "Ten thousand difficulties do not
make one doubt."[32]
158 "Faith seeks understanding":[33] 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"[34] 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."[35] In the words of St.
Augustine, "I believe, in order to understand; and I understand, the better to
believe."[36]
159 Faith and science: "Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real
discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who reveals mysteries and
infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny
himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth."[37] "Consequently, methodical research in
all branches of knowledge, provided it is carried out in a truly scientific manner and does
not override moral laws, can never conflict with the faith, because the things of the
world and the things of faith derive from the same God. The humble and persevering
investigator of the secrets of nature is being led, as it were, by the hand of God in spite
of himself, for it is God, the conserver of all things, who made them what they are."[38]
The freedom of faith
160 To be human, "man's response to God by faith must be free, and... therefore
nobody is to be forced to embrace the faith against his will. The act of faith is of its very
nature a free act."[39] "God calls men to serve him in spirit and in truth. Consequently
they are bound to him in conscience, but not coerced. . . This fact received its fullest
manifestation in Christ Jesus."[40] Indeed, Christ invited people to faith and conversion,
but never coerced them. "For he bore witness to the truth but refused to use force to
impose it on those who spoke against it. His kingdom... grows by the love with which
Christ, lifted up on the cross, draws men to himself."[41]
The necessity of faith
161 Believing in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent him for our salvation is necessary
for obtaining that salvation.[42] "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.'"]
Perseverance in faith
162 Faith is an entirely free gift that God makes to man. We can lose this priceless gift,
as St. Paul indicated to St. Timothy: "Wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good
conscience. By rejecting conscience, certain persons have made shipwreck of their
faith."[44] To live, grow and persevere in the faith until the end we must nourish it with
the word of God; we must beg the Lord to increase our faith;[45] it must be "working
through charity," abounding in hope, and rooted in the faith of the Church.[46]
Faith - the beginning of eternal life
163 Faith makes us taste in advance the light of the beatific vision, the goal of our
journey here below. Then we shall see God "face to face", "as he is".[47] So faith is
already the beginning of eternal life:
When we contemplate the blessings of faith even now, as if gazing at a reflection in a
mirror, it is as if we already possessed the wonderful things which our faith assures us
we shall one day enjoy.[48]
164 Now, however, "we walk by faith, not by sight";[49] we perceive God as "in a
mirror, dimly" and only "in part".[50] Even though enlightened by him in whom it
believes, faith is often lived in darkness and can be put to the test. The world we live in
often seems very far from the one promised us by faith. Our experiences of evil and
suffering, injustice and death, seem to contradict the Good News; they can shake our
faith and become a temptation against it.
165 It is then we must turn to the witnesses of faith: to Abraham, who "in hope...
believed against hope";[51] to the Virgin Mary, who, in "her pilgrimage of faith", walked
into the "night of faith"[52] in sharing the darkness of her son's suffering and death; and
to so many others: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with
perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of
our faith."[53]
ARTICLE 2 - WE BELIEVE
166 Faith is a personal act - the free response of the human person to the initiative of
God who reveals himself. But faith is not an isolated act. No one can believe alone, just
as no one can live alone.
You have not given yourself faith as you have not given yourself life. The believer has
received faith from others and should hand it on to others. Our love for Jesus and for
our neighbour impels us to speak to others about our faith. Each believer is thus a link
in the great chain of believers. I cannot believe without being carried by the faith of
others, and by my faith I help support others in the faith.
167 "I believe" (Apostles' Creed) is the faith of the Church professed personally by each
believer, principally during Baptism. "We believe" (Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed) is
the faith of the Church confessed by the bishops assembled in council or more generally
by the liturgical assembly of believers. "I believe" is also the Church, our mother,
responding to God by faith as she teaches us to say both "I believe" and "We believe".
I. "LORD, LOOK UPON THE FAITH OF YOUR
CHURCH"
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."[54]
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."[55] Because she is our
mother, she is also our teacher in the faith.
II. THE LANGUAGE OF FAITH
170 We do not believe in formulae, but in those realities they express, which faith allows
us to touch. "The believer's act [of faith] does not terminate in the propositions, but in
the realities [which they express]."[56] All the same, we do approach these realities with
the help of formulations of the faith which permit us to express the faith and to hand it
on, to celebrate it in community, to assimilate and live on it more and more.
171 The Church, "the pillar and bulwark of the truth", faithfully guards "the faith which
was once for all delivered to the saints". She guards the memory of Christ's words; it is
she who from generation to generation hands on the apostles' confession of faith.[57]
As a mother who teaches her children to speak and so to understand and communicate,
the Church our Mother teaches us the language of faith in order to introduce us to the
understanding and the life of faith.
III. ONLY ONE FAITH
172 Through the centuries, in so many languages, cultures, peoples and nations, the
Church has constantly confessed this one faith, received from the one Lord, transmitted
by one Baptism, and grounded in the conviction that all people have only one God and
Father.[58] St. Irenaeus of Lyons, a witness of this faith, declared:
173 "Indeed, the Church, though scattered throughout the whole world, even to the
ends of the earth, having received the faith from the apostles and their disciples. . .
guards [this preaching and faith] with care, as dwelling in but a single house, and
similarly believes as if having but one soul and a single heart, and preaches, teaches and
hands on this faith with a unanimous voice, as if possessing only one mouth."[59]
174 "For though languages differ throughout the world, the content of the Tradition is
one and the same. The Churches established in Germany have no other faith or
Tradition, nor do those of the Iberians, nor those of the Celts, nor those of the East, of
Egypt, of Libya, nor those established at the centre of the world. . ."[60] The Church's
message "is true and solid, in which one and the same way of salvation appears
throughout the whole world."[61]
175 "We guard with care the faith that we have received from the Church, for without
ceasing, under the action of God's Spirit, this deposit of great price, as if in an excellent
vessel, is constantly being renewed and causes the very vessel that contains it to be
renewed."[62]
IN BRIEF
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.
177 "To believe" has thus a twofold reference: to the person, and to the truth: to the
truth, by trust in the person who bears witness to it.
178 We must believe in no one but God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
179 Faith is a supernatural gift from God. In order to believe, man needs the interior
helps of the Holy Spirit.
180 "Believing" is a human act, conscious and free, corresponding to the dignity of the
human person.
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).
182 We believe all "that which is contained in the word of God, written or handed
down, and which the Church proposes for belief as divinely revealed" (Paul VI, CPG #
20).
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).
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).
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