Day 25: Summary of Faith (176-184)

• You know what this means, right?

• It’s MCNUGGET DAY!!! 

• We get summaries of what we have been reading the last few days

• So we have GOD’S REVELATION

• What is our response?

• FAITH!!

• We don’t JUST give intellectual assent

• We give our PERSONAL ADHERENCE to God

• We have a PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP with God

• It is INDIVIDUAL

• It is PERSONAL

• BUT AT THE SAME TIME…

• It is COMMUNAL

• It is NOT PRIVATE

• We DO NOT come to the Lord in isolation

• We don’t JUST believe the IDEAS about God

• WE BELIEVE IN GOD!!

• IN FACT…

• Paragraph 178 says, “We must believe in no one but God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”

• Remember we do not believe in human beings IN THE SAME WAY that we believe in the Lord God Himself

• We can trust God FULLY

• We cannot trust EVEN GOOD PEOPLE as fully as we trust God, who is TRUTH HIMSELF

• God cannot DECEIVE 

• God cannot BE DECEIVED

• Believing is a PERSONAL ACT

• Believing is also an ECCLESIAL ACT

• We also place our trust in the Lord FULLY

• This means that whatever God has REVEALED, we say “YES” to WITH OUR WHOLE SELVES

• That is the challenge of our lives

• That is the challenge we will talk about today 

• So let's say a prayer!!

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in heaven, we know that you have revealed yourself to us so that we can entrust our entire selves back to you. You revealed the depth of your identity, the depth of your heart, the depth of the relationship that you want with us. We ask that you please give us hearts, give us minds that cannot simply grasp or apprehend the ideas but hearts that trust you, give us a will that will actually truly choose to say yes to you when we are certain and when we have questions, when we have no difficulties, and when we are faced with difficulties. Lord God, send us your grace. Help us to have the grace of faith, the gift of faith, and then give us the courage to exercise the virtue of faith. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen”

• WHAT A GIFT!

• “Faith is a foretaste of the knowledge that will make us blessed in the life to come.”

• We only grasp this through a mirror, darkly

• We understand that in shadow

• Even though God has given Himself to us and has revealed Himself to us in a COMPLETE AND FULL way, it is still MEDIATED

• While God’s revelation of Himself is, in many ways, COMPLETE

• The Son is the FULL REVELATION of the Father

• Our APPREHENSION of this Revelation…

• Our GRASP of this Revelation…

• Our UNDERSTANDING of His self Revelation…

• Is going to be LIMITED by our FINITE MINDS

• Is going to be LIMITED by our FINITE HEARTS

• “Faith is a foretaste of the knowledge that will make us blessed in the life to come.”

• In the life to come, God’s LOVE…

• God’s SELF…

• God’s IDENTITY…

• God’s BEING…

• WILL NOT BE MEDIATED ANYMORE!!

• WE WILL BE HIS!!

• HE WILL BE OURS!!

• COMPLETELY!!

• THAT IS SO GOOD!!

• WHAT AN INCREDIBLE GIFT!!

• So let’s talk about FAITH!!

• We submit our INTELLECT and our WILL

• Paragraph 175 says, “Faith is a personal adherence of the whole man to God who reveals himself (to us).”

• If I am going to give the Lord my FULL BELIEF…

• My FULL FAITH…

• My FULL TRUST IN HIM…

• Then by FAITH, I WILL what He WILLS

• That is part of what that ultimately means

• It involves a DEEPER SENSE OF TRUST than emotional faith

• Emotional faith means we have the SENSE of trust and the FEELING of trust

• BUT…

• If I am going to get ALL THE WAY DOWN to what we will call “HEART FAITH” what it means is I am not going to weigh out WHICH of God’s statements do I believe

• THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT!!

• If I have this DEPTH OF FAITH I am not going to come before the Lord or the Church and say, “Ok, what are the statements that I am going to trust? What are the statements that I am going to believe?”

• If I have this DEPTH OF FAITH I am not believing or trusting in having faith IN THE STATEMENTS

• I have FAITH in the ONE WHO MAKES THE STATEMENTS

• I have FAITH IN GOD ALONE

• Paragraph 178 says, “We must believe in no one but God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”

• Years ago there was a Christian man who was looking at the Catholic Faith

• At some point someone told him, “When you become Catholic, you believe the WHOLE THING. You believe EVERYTHING that the Catholic Church professes and proclaims revealed by God.”

• IN FACT…

• That is part of what we say when a person is coming into FULL COMMUNION with the Church

• They make a PROFESSION OF FAITH 

• They say, “I believe and profess all that the Catholic Church teaches, believes, and proclaims to be revealed by God.”

• This man said something COMPELLING but also so DISHEARTENING

• “I don’t think I’ve ever believed EVERYTHING about ANYTHING.”

• He was being very honest

• AND YET…

• Here is the Church who says, “If you are going to come into this ONE FAITH and come communion with this Church established by Jesus Christ Himself, we assent and we profess faith in EVERYTHING the Church declares.”

• Where does that come from for us who find ourselves in the Church and we say, “I DO PROFESS.”

• “I DO BELIEVE”

• It doesn’t come from the fact that we have weighed it all out and laid out all the teachings and said, “Yup. This one checks out. And this one checks out. And this one checks out.”

• We believe in these individual teachings because we believe in the IDENTITY OF THE TEACHER

• We believe these individual points of doctrine because we believe in the ONE WHO HAS REVEALED HIMSELF TO US

• So…

• WE BELIEVE IN GOD HIMSELF: FATHER, SON, AND HOLY SPIRIT!!

• Because of that and because we BELIEVE in Him and because we TRUST in Him, here is His teacher

• Here is THE MAGISTER

• Here is THE MATER

• Here is the MOTHER AND TEACHER of all the believers

• Hers is the MOTHER AND TEACHER of all the faithful

• St. Cyprian said, “No one can have God as Father who does not have the Church as Mother.”

• Because no one comes to the Faith ON THEIR OWN

• Here is God who is the AUTHOR OF SALVATION

• BUT…

• Here is the Church who becomes, in many ways, like the VEHICLE

• Later, we will hear the Church is the SACRAMENT OF SALVATION

• God is the AUTHOR OF ALL THAT

• God is the AUTHOR OF ALL TRUTH

• GOD IS TRUTH ITSELF!!

• The Church becomes the VEHICLE

• The Church is the SACRAMENT that Salvation COMES TO US

• THAT TRUTH COMES TO US!!

• We don’t believe IN the Church, we believe IN GOD HIMSELF

• Because we TRUST GOD

• Because we HAVE FAITH IN GOD

• We can profess the FAITH OF THE CHURCH WITHOUT HESITATION AND WITH GREAT ZEAL AND GREAT CONVICTION

• Now, some of us still wrestle 

• AND THAT IS OK!!

• We are going to keep wrestling over the next 340 days, give or take

• We are on this journey TOGETHER

• THAT IS SO POWERFUL!!

• You may have difficulties

• You may have questions

• BUT…

• THAT IS WHY WE ARE WALKING TOGETHER!!

• THAT IS SO GOOD!!

• So we have to pray EVERY DAY

• “God, help me be a good student. Truly. God, you are the Author of all salvation. You are the Source of all truth. Here is the Church that is the teacher, that is our Mother. Help me be a good student. Help me to be a beloved child of the Father. Help me to be a child who loves the Father back. Help me be a child who loves that Mother and Teacher back.”

• THAT IS OUR PRAYER TODAY!!

• We are going to keep going deeper and deeper into THE CREED

• SO EXCITING!!

• BUT…

• With every step, we are NOT just trying to LEARN THE DATA

• We are trying to say “YES!” to the One who is the AUTHOR and the REVEALER of the data

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!

• I cannot WAIT to see you tomorrow!!