I have a have personal responsibility for my
own journey of faith. The Catechism of
the Catholic Church speaks of a “faith that seeks understanding. It is
intrinsic to faith that a believer desires to know the One in whom he has put
his faith, and to understand better what the Lord has revealed. A more
penetrating knowledge will in turn call forth a greater faith, increasingly set
afire by love.”
We are warned that while faith is “an entirely free gift that
God gives to a person, we can lose this priceless gift. To live, grow and
persevere in the faith to the end we must nourish it, and beg God to increase
our faith.”
Jesus calls us to love God “with our whole
mind.” An Irish Cistercian nun
writes: “For me the surest path to contemplation does not involve emptying my
mind but rather filling my mind with the marvels that God has done for us in
Jesus. Reflection on the mystery of Christ is for me the surest path to praise,
thanksgiving and contemplation. Using my mind, not suppressing it, leads to
prayer and union with God.”
Many of us discover
as we get older that the certain understandings that guided our youth are
insufficient to light the next stage of our life. Many would like their faith to be deeper, better informed, richer. They
realise it needs to grow more mature or to be purified of alien
elements so that they can live it more faithfully and help steady their
uncertain steps.
St Paul
tells the Christians in Corinth:
“Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in faith. Test yourselves.”
But then he adds, “Do you not realise that Jesus Christ is in you?” (2
Corithians13:4). Our faith can only become what it is meant to be when we
realise how magnificently Christ is in us, unceasingly inviting us to respond to the grace of the Spirit.
Then during this Year of Faith we can be gifted with a faith that is living, lived and life-giving.
