The Motive of Faith

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What do we believe? What motive is strong enough to make us put the evidence of sense and experience in the second place, and feel the firmest certainty about things which we cannot fully comprehend? Faith differs from ordinary knowledge; it rests not on the word of man or our own faculties, but on infinite wisdom which cannot be mistaken, and perfect veracity which cannot deceive us. The integrity of Faith requires a supernatural motive as well as a supernatural object; we need to believe not only what God has revealed, but because He has revealed it. To believe divine truths simply because they please us, or because of human authority, or because they are beautiful or noble or useful, is not divine Faith. The whole structure must be supernatural; and each part must be in harmony with all the others, and with the higher order to which we are to be raised. No motive could be higher and more forcible than the motive on which God has established our faith. We have evidence that He has spoken, we are strengthened to believe His word, and then our conviction of the truths so conveyed to us is absolutely firm and secure; the invisible becomes more real to us than the visible, our interests center more in heaven than on earth, we live in familiar intercourse with God and the blessed spirits, and we pass our lives on a higher plane that is incomprehensible to those who have not the faith. Strengthen your belief in the supernatural more and more by remembering that God has spoken. 

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The Object of Faith

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The object of our belief is the body of truths revealed by God. In the main they are things that are outside the natural sphere and unattainable by our ordinary powers. Things that belong to the order of nature may, however, be made known to us by revelation on account of their having some bearing on supernatural truths; but this is quite exceptional. The living Wisdom of God when walking on this earth made no revelation concerning even the most important of natural truths, science, history, economics, industry, art. Of such subjects it is written: "He hath delivered the world to their disputation." "This painful occupation hath God given to the children of men to be exercised therein" (Eccle. iii. 11, i. 13). The primary object of revelation, subserved by all other things, is God Himself, His greatness, His goodness, the ways of His Providence; and secondarily, the mysteries which flow from Him, the Incarnation, the future life, the fall, the Church, the Sacraments, the divine law. These are the most important objects of human knowledge, the most influential on human life, the most satisfying. St. Augustine truly says that he who knows divine truths, though he may know nought else, knows all things; and he who knows all things else and knows not these, knows nothing. Ask God to give you a deep insight into His divine mysteries and a perception of their harmony and beauty, with practical results in your spiritual life. Let them not degenerate into mere words and formulas. 

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The Nature of Faith

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God having raised man to higher relations with Himself than those which originate in the natural order, an additional influx from God is required, to form the basis of those relations. There must be some manifestation from outside of those divine truths which reason cannot attain to alone. A special aptitude must be infused into the mind that it may be able to assimilate those truths. There must be some provision for perfect certainty about them, so that they may hold their own against human tendency to error, and may prevail over the influences of the lower nature. As supernatural truth is superior in kind to all that belongs to this world, the action of the mind in adhering to it is more important than any other intellectual action. As the operations of the intelligence must precede all responsible action both in temporal and in spiritual matters, the equipment of the intelligence is the first necessity of the higher life. God has provided for these requirements in the revelation He has given us and in the infused gift of Faith. This is the essential foundation of the higher life, for "without faith it is impossible to please God" (Heb. xi. 6). We cannot acquire it for ourselves; Faith like "every best gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights" (Jas. i. 17). How much does Faith open to you! How it elevates you in mind and soul! It is one of your most precious gifts. Strive for its increase. Beware lest you ever lose it. 

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The Vices

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Vice is the counterpart of virtue, and has a correspondence of opposition to it as to character, progress and result. Like virtue, vice is not an action, nor a series of actions, but is a permanent quality or habit of the soul predisposing it to certain classes of sins. The act of sin passes at once, the habit of the sin or the vice remains, as a facility for further sins, a source of them, and a delight in them. A virtue is a permanent resemblance to some particular perfection of God; a vice is a permanent state of departure from some divine perfection. As vices increase, there is a further obliteration of the image of God in many different respects, and a growing hideousness of the soul that turns it into a blasphemous caricature of the All-holy and All-beautiful. The vices, as being opposed to God, who is the ideal of perfection, are also opposed to human nature and human reason. They are diseases of the soul, which disorganize the faculties, curtail freedom, bind the soul in a degrading slavery, drain away its strength, destroy spiritual vision and the savour for spiritual things, render the soul incapable of understanding, enjoying, desiring God and the things that are of God, both in this world and in the next. Vice endures as the character of the soul after the act of sin has ceased, and after death has removed the opportunities of sin; and the soul remains for ever a hideous object, spoilt for its purpose, loathed by God and loathing Him. 

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The Practice of Virtue

 

As virtue is the reduction of supernatural principles to action, as it is the practical form that our service of God must take and the instrumental means of our salvation, its acquirement should be one of the great cares of our life. It is the height of folly to attend to trivial advantages, and neglect those that are solid and permanent ; to interest our selves in the business of others and forget our own; to decorate the exterior of a house with profusion, and leave it uncomfortable and unhealthy within; to clothe ourselves in purple, while starving ourselves and shortening our lives. So it is with those who satisfy all the cravings of the body, who develop all the faculties of the intelligence, and neglect the nobler impulses to virtue which spring from grace. It is the supreme folly, to make every provision for the brief period of this life and none whatever for that existence which will last for ever. There are many who have the fullest knowledge and every assistance, and yet do not bring forth fruits of virtue; they suffer the temporal disadvantages that belong to the followers of the Crucified, and yet enjoy none of their spiritual compensations. "What shall it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith but hath not works?" (Jas. ii. 14). Take care to crown the edifice of faith and grace by leading a life of virtue. Each day brings its openings for works of faith, of benevolence, of self-restraint. Do not neglect a single one. 

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The Consideration of Virtue

 

The operation of the intelligence must precede that of the will. We must carefully study principles and methods before we proceed to practical applications. In every branch of activity men need to be educated beforehand as to its laws in all their details. Serious consideration must be systematic and not at haphazard. A superficial acquaintance with formulas is not sufficient; it is necessary to impress the mind, and stir up interest and enthusiasm. Such is the case with the education of the soul to virtue. We should know what exactly is the nature of virtue, the means of practising it, the obstacles which stand in its way, the vices opposed to it; and we should be acquainted with the great model of all virtue in the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the lives of His followers who have made the divine Ideal the measure of ordinary lives. "Blessed is he that understandeth." Without such careful training of the mind we shall run the risk of mistaking our course, of overlooking some important virtue, of carefully cultivating a weed instead of a flower, and a vice instead of the divine reality. In any case our efforts will be indefinite, unpractical, and without result. Take care that you do not lead a random life, drifting hither and thither without any definite aim, forgetting your deficiencies, neglecting systematic self-conquest, taking ignorance as an all-sufficient guide. Investigate the whole field of virtue, consider your own needs, and proceed systematically, as in learning a business or educating a child. 

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The Progress of Virtue

 

The beginnings of the infused habits of the moral and theological virtues are not from our own strivings but from God. They come to us with the infusion of sanctifying grace. This grace is bestowed on us by God through the Sacraments; or, in default of the Sacraments, it is given to us by God's free bounty in response to our turning towards Him with acts of charity and repentance of our sins. We then receive the faculty of eliciting actions of every kind on the supernatural level. Our souls are enriched with new endowments, viz. the powers and facilities for all the virtues; and this makes them beautiful in the sight of God as presenting more fully the image of His perfections. The acquired habits of virtue are established in our souls as we gain the knowledge of them, become familiarized with them, learn to esteem and desire them, and finally put them into frequent practice. The infused and acquired habits must be united. We must not be contented with the mere potentiality of exercising faith or justice on the supernatural plane; we must bring that potentiality into effect as occasion offers, and repeat the actions of faith or justice, exercising our natural faculties until they are moulded to the forms of virtue as by a second nature. The infused habit, or supernatural potentiality, must take shape in the acquired habit of action, to bring forth fruit and prove its vitality. Without that infusion from God, the habit of action, of belief or of justice, e.g., is only of the natural order and is dead as regards the higher life. Continue Reading.

 

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