Popes shine a light on faith

Why does faith matter? The Catholic Church has always maintained that it’s to purify and enlighten, not to replace, reason. In his last testament, as part of his trilogy on theological virtues — love, hope and faith — Pope Benedict XVI handed over to be completed and published the draft of his last encyclical, now published under the name of Pope Francis with the title Lumen Fidei (The Light of Faith).

An encyclical on faith would probably be unnecessary had religion and culture not become separated in our times.

This separation is mostly obvious within those parts of the Church where children no longer feel the need to follow tradition in adopting their parents’ belief. Like all religion, Christianity is moving away from becoming part of the Western culture into the realm where everyone who wants to follow it must explore its beliefs.

This is not necessarily a bad thing since faith tends to be more authentic when it is lived around challenges, such as that of secularism, than when it is part of tradition and therefore often taken for granted as a habit.

Needless to say the discussion of faith in Lumen Fidei is closely tied to religion and does not extend to the general fabric of reality that most, if not all, people live by, even when they are non-believers. We all, somehow, live by faith. As a philosopher might tell us, it takes faith to continue living.

They say the history of progress can be seen as us telling increasingly better stories about how things work. Keeping to that, Lumen Fidei seeks to tell the story of our faith, Christianity, in the light of the narrative of our times. And it does so, dare I say, in the language that even non-believers might find compelling.

For instance, in what I think is Pope Francis’ emphasis, the encyclical says: “The light of our faith in Christ can also contribute to a more fruitful dialogue with non-Christians and non-believers, showing how all those who search for God or seek for truth will be welcomed and illuminated by that light.”

In biblical language, “for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Mt 5:45). And as the ancient saying goes: “God is confessed by those who deny him and denied by those who confess him.”

The encyclical also discusses salvation by faith and the “ecclesial form of faith”—that is, the role of the Church in the life of faith; that our faith is not to be lived in isolation from the Church. This speaks to the spirit of our times that supposes a disjuncture between spirituality and religion.

Lumen Fidei says that authentic spirituality is lived in conjunction and with the challenges of being part of the Body of Christ, the Church.

“Faith is not a private matter, a completely individualistic notion or a personal opinion: it comes from hearing, and it is meant to find expression in words and to be proclaimed,” Lumen Fidei reminds us. This challenges us also towards evangelisation.

“Faith becomes operative in the Christian on the basis of the gift received, the love which attracts our hearts to Christ (cf Gal 5:6), and enables us to become part of the Church’s great pilgrimage through history until the end of the world,” it says.

But the part in the document which resonates with me is this: “The first setting in which faith enlightens the human city is the family.”

In a profound way the encyclical goes on to put the stable union of man and woman in marriage at the centre of a successful society.

“This union is born of their love, as a sign and presence of God’s own love, and of the acknowledgment and acceptance of the goodness of sexual differentiation, whereby spouses can become one flesh (cf Gen 2:24) and are enabled to give birth to a new life, a manifestation of the Creator’s goodness, wisdom and loving plan.”

I intend to look at this closely in next month’s column.