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I. Ordinary science is acquired by observation, study, reasoning, information. The supernatural science of God in faith is different. It is the gift of God, not dependent on our abilities or our efforts, unintelligible to those who do not possess it. The habit or potentiality must first be infused into the soul from above; and this, in the ordinary course, is effected by Baptism, which therefore is called an Illumination. The habit may exist independently of its exercise, as the habit or potentiality of reason exists in infants who have not yet arrived at the use of it. The genesis of faith proceeds in three stages with those who have the power of putting it into action by means of conscious knowledge and the assent to it.
1. The truth has to be proposed as reasonably credible through the voice of God speaking in Scripture or the Church.
2. This external grace is accompanied by an inward illumination of the intellect and an impulse towards the truth impressed on the will.
3. Then follows the consent of the will, and the harmony of the human with the divine action. The two former elements are from God; the last is from man, and is influenced by the character which he has formed for himself by his habits of action. By being unfaithful in small things, man prepares himself to be unfaithful in that which is great; and he may so harden his heart as to make it impervious to divine influences like the heart of Pharaoh. God "will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. ii. 4). Thank Him for the light and be faithful to it.
II. The maintenance of Faith corresponds to its genesis. It increases and remains vigorous, not in virtue of our deeper study, firmer intellectual grasp of divine knowledge, or natural gifts of acuteness and determination, but dependently on God (Page 161) and sanctifying grace. The acquired habit of grasping and believing the doctrines of faith is rendered more vigorous by the application of the natural powers of our mind to them; but even this element of faith is dependent more on our moral and spiritual than on our intellectual qualities. Thus the acquired habit of spiritual knowledge differs from the mental habit of ordinary science. Humility is a condition of spiritual knowledge, for God reveals His truths to little ones (Matt. xi. 25), and faith is an act of self-sacrifice and submission. Chastity too affects the capacity for faith: "Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God" (Matt. v. 8). Strive to increase this sacred science in your soul by the grace of God, by frequent acts of faith, and the exercise of your mind in the study of divine truth. God will then unveil His mysteries to you, according to that: "Many things are shown to thee above the understanding of men" (Eccli. iii. 25).
III. Unlike other knowledge Faith may be lost otherwise than by forgetfulness. By sins, especially of pride, lust, worldliness, the appreciation of divine truths is diminished, the soul falls into a state of darkness, and becomes unable to believe. Again, those who choose and reject articles of belief according to their fancy lose the faith, considered as the infused gift of God, and retain only a mere natural belief of certain truths, that is without merit and is no homage to God. At the end of this life Faith ceases to exist. In the case of the blessed, their knowledge of truths on God's authority is changed into the knowledge which comes from clear vision of the truth in its fulness. The wicked also are shut out from the possibility of supernatural faith, but they have not ceased to believe. On the contrary those who have refused to believe upon the authority of God and His Church will arrive at full belief on the compulsion of terrible experience. Do not presume on your faith. It is possible to lose it. Ask God that you may keep it intact until it merges into vision.
