Reflection on the Year of Faith
Today (Sunday, 07 Oct 2012) representatives of Bishops from all over the world gather together inRomefor the General Synod on New Evangelization. The Synod is a gathering of Bishops that takes place from time to time to discuss issues pertaining to the universal church or to certain regions. After the synod, the participants leave some recommendations to the Pope, who then publishes an Apostolic Exhortation on the theme of the Synod.
The Synod that is starting today is special. It celebrates the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. It was on 11th Oct 1962, under the leadership of Pope Blessed John XXIII, that the first session of the Vatican Council II officially opened.
To mark this special anniversary, the Pope has called on the universal church to celebrate a “Year of Faith” beginning from 11th October 2012 until 24th November 2013 (the feast of Christ the King). This celebration also marks the 20th anniversary of the publication of the present Catechism of the Catholic Church.
The Pope declared the Year of Faith with his Apostolic Letter, Porta Fidei. In this letter, the Pope states that the purpose of the Year of Faith is “To rediscover the content of the faith that is professed, celebrated, lived and prayed” (no.9). He goes on to state that “knowing the content to be believed is not sufficient unless the heart, the authentic sacred space within the person, is opened by grace that allows the eyes to see below the surface and to understand that what has been proclaimed is the word of God” (no.10).
To introduce us to the Year of Faith, I would like to present our Christian faith as a cycle. We can think of at least five major stages in this cycle of Christian faith: (1) Faith received; (2) Faith personalised; (3) Faith witnessed; (4) Faith celebrated; and (5) Faith proclaimed.
1. Faith Received (Faith as a Gift)
We are Christians because someone shared with us their faith. Perhaps, most of us were born in a Christian family and our parents shared their faith with us during our baptism; they brought us up as good Christians. I myself was born in a Christian family, in a village that was 100% Catholic. Possibly, my people have been Christians for at least 500 years. I am grateful to God that I was born in a Christian family. Thanks to the support of my family, I wanted to become a priest right from the age of reason! However, that does not mean, that I understood then what Christian faith meant, or what being a priest implied. In any case, that is how most of us begin our Christian life journey.
“Faith Received” also implies that faith is a gift – Grace of God. St Paulwriting to the Ephesians (2:8-9) says, “Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God; not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit.” In Porta Fidei, the Pope states, “There exists a profound unity between the act by which we believe and the content to which we give our assent. The first act by which one comes to faith is God’s gift and the action of grace which acts and transforms the person deep within” (no.10). This statement links us to the next stage of the faith cycle.
2. Faith Personalised (Faith as the Experience of God)
We remain Christians because we see that Christianity as a community offers us the possibility to quench our “desire for God” (CCC no. 27); it has the possibility to satisfy our inner thirst. But we really become Christians when we can personalise the faith that we have received. The Pope writes, “Profession of faith is an act both personal and communitarian.”
Jesus invites us, as he always invited his disciples, to a personal experience of God in his person. To the first two disciples he says, “Come and See” (Jn 1:39), and to the apostles he puts this question, “Who do you say I am?” (Mk 8:27-35). To us he tells us, ‘You have heard so many sermons from other people about me; you know your Catechism very well; you have memorised different prayers; and you participate in the Sunday liturgy quite regularly, but “who do you say I am?”
In my mother tongue we have a saying: “You can only take the cow to the water.” Yes, once you take the cow to the water, it is up to the cow to drink that water. Our parents, our Sunday school teachers, the church, could only take us to the water of life. God can only invite us to his grace. It is up to us to make a personal choice to participate in his grace. It is up to us to make an act of free will like the Magi (Mt 2:1-11) who decided to follow the star; like Zacchaeus (Lk 19:1-11) who decided to climb the Sycamore tree; like the apostles and disciples who decided to follow Jesus. In Rev 3:20, the Spirit of God says, “Look, I am standing at the door, knocking. If one of you hears me calling and opens the door, I will come in to share a meal at that person’s side.” Yes, once we have had a personal experience of Jesus in the context of the believing community, then we can say, like the Apostle Paul, “For me live is Christ” (Phil 1:21). That is…
3. Faith Witnessed To (Faith Lived)
Our Christian faith is given to us, we receive it. We personalise it through our ongoing experience of God in the person of Jesus, and we live that faith – we witness. The Greek word for ‘witness’ is ‘martyrion’. So, a martyr is not necessarily one who is ready to die for the Christian faith, but it is anyone who lives that faith, even if that implies some inconveniences, some challenges, and some suffering.
Today we live in a very secular context, and sometimes the words of the Book of Wisdom is so relevant to us: “The godless say to themselves, ‘Let us lie in wait for the virtuous man, since he annoys us and opposes our way of life…” (Wis2:12). This offers us a challenge and an opportunity to deepen our own faith. That is why Jesus warns us, “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mk 8:34-35).
Service (‘diakonia’ in Gk) is a concrete way of witnessing to our Christian faith. Service is seen in Christian charity. And so Jesus continues: “Anyone who welcomes a little child such as this in my name, welcomes me; and anyone who welcomes me, welcomes not me but the one who sent me” (Mk 9:37).
4. Faith Celebrated (Faith expressed and deepened in Liturgy)
Living out our faith is not a constant experience of a “vale of tears.” It is a celebration. The rejoicing of the community is expressed most of all in the liturgical celebration, and particularly in the Eucharistic celebration. The early Christian communities gathered together to celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord by listening to the Word and breaking Bread together (Acts 2:42; Acts 20:7; 1Cor 10:16-17). And this was a joyful celebration (Act 2:46).
That is why, the Second Vatican Council reminded us that “The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life” (Lumen Gentium, 11). And therefore, the Pope writes in his Apostolic Letter convoking the Year of Faith, “We want this Year to arouse in every believer the aspiration to profess the faith in fullness and with renewed conviction. It will also be a good opportunity to intensify the celebration of the faith in the liturgy, especially in the Eucharist” (no.9).
5. Faith Proclaimed (Kerygma)
The gospel stories tell us so consistently how those who had an encounter with Jesus immediately become messengers of the Good News. “The first thing Andrew did [after he stayed with Jesus] was to find his brother and say to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ and he took Simon to Jesus” (Jn 1:41-42a). The Samaritan woman “put down her water jar and hurried back to the town to tell the people, ‘Come and see a man who has told me everything I have done; could this be the Christ?’ (Jn 4:28-29). The two disciples on the road to Emmaus after they recognized the Lord at the breaking of the bread, “set out that instant and returned toJerusalem. [There]… they told their story of what had happened on the road and how they had recognised him at the breaking of bread” (Lk 24:33-35). The invitation of Jesus, “Come and See” becomes positively contagious.
Similarly,St Paulsays, “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel” (1Cor 9:16, RSV; see also Rom 10:14-15). Someone said, evangelisation is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread. Proclamation is simply being able to share with others how Christian faith has given me joy and hope, and inviting them too to find that same sense of hope. We proclaim our faith so that someone else can receive it, and the cycle of Christian faith can continue. God continues to offer the gift of faith to others through us.
In the Gospel of John (Chap 4) the story of the Samaritan woman concludes with a very telling image of the completion of the cycle of faith. The people of the village who heard the invitation of the woman, “Come and see the man who told me everything”, and responded to it, at the end of the story go back to the woman and tell her, “Now we believe no longer because of what you told us; we have heard him ourselves and we know that he is indeed the Saviour of the world” (Jn 4:42). If our missionaries were to come back would we be able to make a similar statement to them?
May the Year of Faith help us to rediscover our faith, to experience it, to live it, to celebrate it, and to pass it on.