Christian Faith: Beliefs, Reason, and Following Christ
The Truth to Believe as a Christian
Key Manifestations of Christian Faith:
- Believing in one God and the truths He has revealed.
- For Christians, believing in God is inseparable from believing in Jesus Christ, His beloved Son.
- Believing in God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ means believing in the Holy Spirit.
Christians are to believe all the truths contained in the Creed. Christian faith involves a full commitment to the symbol of faith and all the truths revealed within it. It’s not a matter of picking and choosing what to believe.
Furthermore, one must believe with divine and Catholic faith all that is contained in the Word of God, written or handed down by tradition. This is the deposit of faith that Jesus Christ entrusted to the Church. The Church fully exercises the authority of Jesus Christ when it defines dogmas of faith.
Faith is Reasonable
Faith is also an act of intelligence.
The fact that faith is not *from* reason does not mean it is irrational. On the contrary, when a person believes, they must strive to better understand what they believe. They must use their intelligence to illustrate the truths of faith. Theologians say that faith is not unenlightened; reason should help deepen the meaning of the mysteries of faith.
Faith in God is perfectly reasonable.
There are many more reasons to believe in the existence of God than to doubt it. Vatican II teaches that without God, the most acute problems of human existence, and the meaning of life and death, go unanswered.
It is also reasonable to believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God who came into the world for our salvation. We have plenty of reasons for credibility.
Atheism may strive to prove, without success, that religion is false, but it can never truly prove its claims.
The mission of theology is to show that the truths of faith are not contrary to reason and that there are good grounds for welcoming and justifying them. The reasons to believe are not self-evident because God wants humans to freely accept and trust in Him, not to be forced. But they are reasonable and true.
Living the Christian Faith is Following Christ
Paul sets the motto of Christian life with this great ideal: “That you may have the same sentiments of Christ Jesus.” But achieving that height is not the result of human moral effort. Christian life is not an ascetic yoga; that point can only be achieved by the action of the Holy Spirit, who acts in the Christian through grace. It follows that it is *not* possible to live Christian morality without prayer and the sacraments.
The Central Mystery of Christian Faith
The mystery of the Holy Trinity is the knowledge that there is one God, one in essence and three in persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We have not reached this understanding through reason, but through Jesus’ revelation. He is the One who has revealed it.
The mystery of the Holy Trinity is the central mystery of faith and Christian living. The whole history of salvation is simply the history of the road and the means by which the one true God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is revealed.