This may be the last question to be addressed in this Lenten Reflection on questions raised by young people. The coming days we will have some very short reflections about our Lord’s suffering and passion. Thank you Jeby for asking today’s question.
This is a very difficult question which we often do not ask but once asked it can trigger a lot of other questions burning within. It is a question very similar to, ‘What is poetry?’, ‘What is love?’ etc. Similar entities like love, truth and beauty also can not be obtained, separated from where they belong to for an analysis or a definition of them on their own. Similarly faith also may better be understood by looking at our own yearning for God where it operates.
There are a lot of attempts at looking at faith as a separate entity. For example St Paul Says, “Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). I would like this following definition for myself which is more a concrete one : Faith is the understanding that God is the creator of the world and he created me out of his love towards me personally.
How can we talk about faith? It is not always easy to talk about faith the same way as we understand and talk about material things. A spiritual and symbolic language is to be chosen to talk about faith in many situations. Every material object and act on earth is a mere foretaste / symbol of what is to come in heaven, the spiritual world.
What gives you faith? Faith is a free gift from God, but because of our attitudes and sinfulness we can reject that gift. This is because faith is not a material gift, but rather a spiritual gift that needs to be fine tuned as we progress through life.
How did you come into your faith? For some people it is inherited. Even if it is there in the family some others choose not to believe. But, later on, through their own yearning for God within they could come back to faith. For some others they stumble upon faith in their sincere search for truth, love, happiness, meaning, and beauty.
How can we sustain in our faith? Our faith can be sustained through good friendships, Community of the church, Spiritual reading, Celebrations of sacraments & Personal prayer.
Once we begin to find faith interesting and benefitting we will naturally spread the word. This is called sharing of faith.
Give me the grace both to recognize that only your redemptive love will fulfil my deepest thirst and to open myself to that love.
This was awesome but wanna lot about this How the True faith….can we see our Jesus in others Life?