Light of Faith

 

I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope

For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love

For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith

But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.

Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought… (T.S. Eliot)

 

In his homily for the opening of the Year of Faith in October 2012, Pope Benedict XVI reminded us that the underlying concern for Vatican II was that Christian doctrine be safeguarded and the faith taught more effectively, saying, “Vatican II concerned itself with seeing that the same faith might continue to be lived in the present day, that it might remain a living faith in a world of change.”

 

Rereading this recently then got me to reread Pope Francis’ encyclical Light of Faith (Lumen Fedei), and a few others resources I had at hand, and use these as our jumping off point today, pulling a few thoughts together from all this wisdom to help us see our faith as important and living so that Christ may dwell in our hearts with joy.

 

To do this, to keep our faith alive and growing that Christ may dwell there, we need to nurture it and not let others minimize it. Pope Francis begins by acknowledging that many today reject faith seeing it as outdated, of no use to modern times. Seeing this all around us can at times be discouraging and the pope knows “there is an urgent need, then, to see once again that faith is a light, for once the flame of faith dies out, all other lights begin to dim.” When we acknowledge the importance of faith we begin to understand the light of faith is a gift of love, and being a gift, it is therefore unique. It is unique, he says, because “it is capable of illuminating every aspect of human existence. A light this powerful cannot come from ourselves but from a more primordial source: in a word, it must come from God.”

 

Though faith, as Francis says, “is born of an encounter with the living God who calls us and reveals his love to us” we must be open and respond to this love if we are to be animated by its grace. Once it is accepted we are transformed by this loving gift of faith and our lives are enlarged and expanded and filled with joy.

 

Our faith grows within and tends to spread out when we invite others to share in its joy. “It is impossible to believe on our own,” states Pope Francis. “Faith is not simply an individual decision which takes place in the depths of the believer’s heart, nor a completely private relationship between the “I” of the believer and the divine “Thou,” between an autonomous subject and God. By its very nature, faith is open to the “We” of the Church; it always takes place within her communion.” How can this “We” be carried out, acted upon? Here we look to St. Therese and her Little Way of doing small things with great love as a starting point for growing in faith that can be put into practice daily. This week as you go about your day think of the other, think with “we” eyes. How can you reach out to, respond to, others? The beauty of this is that it can truly be as simple as a smile given, a remark held back when others make a mistake, joy in coming together at Mass.

 

Faith grows when acted upon in the smallest of ways and blossoms into great love when we see ourselves as community, see ourselves for others. To do this is to communicate Christ Jesus and have a living faith in him who is love.

 

“Let us, then, renew often that act of faith,” as Blessed Columba Marmion wrote, “because every time we do so we make firm the foundation of our spiritual life, and little by little, we render it unshakable.”

 

…In order to arrive there,

To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not,

You must go by a way wherein there is no ecstasy.

In order to arrive at what you do not know

You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance.

In order to possess what you do not possess

You must go by the way of dispossession.

In order to arrive at what you are not

You must go through the way in which you are not.

And what you do not know is the only thing you know

And what you own is what you do not own

And where you are is where you are not.

T. S. Eliot – Four Quartets (including opening poem)

 

For further reading: Christ the Life of the Soul by Blessed Columba Marmion

Story of a Soul; Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux by John Clarke, OCD