CBCP

Catholic Bishops’ Conference

Catechism for Filipino Catholics

Chapter 3 Our Response: We Believe

OPENING
114. For most people, faith simply means “believing in God.” Christian Faith is believing in the God
revealed by Jesus Christ. Catholic Christian Faith means believing that Christ reveals God to us in
and through the Catholic Church, the body of Christ, united in the Holy Spirit. “Believing” here means
realizing that God is calling us to share His divine life __ that is His pagpapakilala to us. Faith is our
personal response as “disciples of Christ” of accepting him “as Lord and Savior.” “It is our ‘Please come in!’
to
Christ who stands at the door and knocks (Rv 3:20)” (PCP II 64). But how do we come to know the
way to respond to Him? What is this response we call “faith”?
115. We use “faith” today to mean different things. Sometimes it means our total response to God’s
revelation. “It is to know, to love, to follow Christ in the Church he founded” (PCP II 36). Or we can
use “faith” to mean the virtue (believing) as distinct from hoping and loving. Faith in this sense means
our personal knowledge of God in Christ, expressed in particular beliefs in specific truths by which we
adhere to Christ. In this chapter we take faith to mean our whole life in Christ, but with primary focus
on personally knowing Christ as our Truth. The moral activity of love will be the focus of Part II of
this Catechism, Christ our Way, while our Christian hope will be developed especially in Part III,
Christ our Life.
CONTEXT
116. The Philippines is noted for being the only Christian country in Asia. Christian Faith is one of the
distinguishing
characteristics of our people. Yet today it is common to hear Filipino Catholics acknowledging how little they
know of their
Christian Faith. Many admit they take their Christian Faith for granted. It enters their lives mostly through
religious
ceremonies attached to family celebrations such as baptisms, marriages, funerals, and house blessings. It is a
faith of
traditional pious practices, and sometimes even of superstitions, drawn from our Filipino social, religious, and
cultural
environment. Such a faith is dangerously open to proselytizing by other religious sects of all kinds, or
corrupted by the
attractions of worldly secularism (cf. Mt 13:4-9, 18-23).
117. PCP II describes this situation:
For most of our people today the faith is centered on the practice of rites of popular piety. Not on the
Word of God, doctrines, sacramental worship (beyond baptism and matrimony). Not on community. Not
on building up our world unto the image of the Kingdom. And we say it is because the ‘unchurched,’ the
vast majority of our people, greatly lack knowledge of and formation in the faith (PCP II 13).
Often this is called “Folk Catholicism.”
118. Today many Filipino Catholics yearn for a more mature Catholic faith and prayer life. But
certain divisive trends and attitudes are also widespread. Some preach Christian doctrine in such a
fundamentalist way that they ignore the wider demands of Christian charity and service. Others so
stress active ideological commitment to “justice and the poor” as to practically deny all value to prayer and
worship. Finally, still others’ faith is marked by an individualistic piety, often accompanied by an
exaggerated bahala na fatalism. These excesses or distortions give a false picture of authentic
Catholic Faith. They also show how important it is to understand what Catholic Faith really is, and
how it should operate in our daily lives.
EXPOSITION
I. FAITH IN HUMAN RELATIONS
119. Faith in its broadest sense is a central reality in Filipino life. It is an everyday “natural” factor in
all our human relationships and daily actions. For example, in accepting the word of others, we
already show our faith (paniniwala) in them. We readily obey the directions of those over us, at home,
at work, in our communities (pagsunod). We even entrust ourselves and our welfare to others: doctors,
teachers, judges, civic leaders, not to mention cooks, jeepney drivers, etc. Without such basic human
faith which includes believing acceptance, obedient action and personal entrusting, human life would
be impossible. Faith as a human reality, therefore, is central to our daily lives.
120. For Filipinos, this can be seen most clearly in our family life and friendships. We grow up,
nurtured and supported by the trust, love and fidelity of our family. We mature through a process of
forming personal friendships, first as children, then as teenagers, finally as adults. But in each case,
there is a gradual revelation of our own inner self to our friend, and a free acceptance of our friend’s
self-revelation. If this friendship is to grow and mature, it must include a “turning toward” the other, a
conversion. We acknowledge our need and trust in the other’s friendship by listening to and
identifying with our friend.
121. Filipinos do all this spontaneously, naturally, but not without difficulty. Sometimes we turn
away, or refuse to listen, or are rejected by the other. But genuine friendships create mutual loving
knowledge of each other. In them we experience something that liberates us from our own
narrowness, and opens us to fuller life and love. We realize that friendship freely offered us by
another, also demands our free response. It is a response that is never just one act, but a long process
of growing intimacy with our friend. Inevitably, others among our families and associates are eventually
involved. Especially God.
II. FAITH IN GOD
122. Faith in God is grounded in God’s own revelation through his words and deeds in salvation
history. It is confirmed by the many reasons for believing that have been worked out throughout the
centuries, responding to the biblical challenge: “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone
who asks you for a reason for your hope” (1 Pt 3:15).
A. Characteristics of Christian Faith
Total and Absolute
123. Already the Old Testament contrasted faith “in man in whom there is no salvation” with faith in “the
Lord who made heaven and earth . . . who shall reign forever” (cf. Ps 146:3,5-6,10; Jer 17:5-8). Only Faith in
God calls for
a total and absolute adherence (cf. CCC 150). Christ himself provides, especially in his Passion, Death and
Resurrection, the best example of this total and absolute commitment to God.
Trinitarian
124. For us Christians, Faith is our adherence to the Triune God revealed through Jesus Christ our
Lord. It is our friendship with Christ and through Christ with the Father, in their Holy Spirit.
Through Christ’s witness to his Father in his teaching, preaching, miracles, and especially in his
Passion, Death and Resurrection, we come to believe in Christ our Savior, in the Father, and in the
Holy Spirit sent into our hearts. Our Faith as Catholics, then, consists in our personal conviction and
belief in God our Father, revealed by Jesus Christ, His own divine Son-made-man, and their presence
to us through the Holy Spirit, in the Church (cf. PCP II 64; CCC 151-52).
Loving, Maturing and Missionary
125. Our Christian Faith is truly life-giving and mature only through love, for “the man without love
has known nothing of God, for God is love” (1 Jn 4:8). And to be Christian, this love must be
inseparably love of God and love of neighbor, like Christ’s. It thus impels us to mission, to
evangelize, by bringing others the Good News (cf. 1 Cor 9:16). Such a missionary spirit is the test of
authentic Faith because it is unthinkable that a person should believe in Christ’s Word and Kingdom
without bearing witness and proclaiming it in his turn (cf. EN 24; PCP II 67-71, 402). This means we
are all called to share in Christ’s own three-fold mission as priest, prophet and king (cf. PCP II 116-
21; LG 10-13).
Informed and Communitarian
126. PCP II insists that Catholic Faith must be “informed,” that is “believing Jesus’ words, and
accepting his teachings, trusting that he has “the words of eternal life” (cf. Jn 6:68; NCDP 147). It
must be “communitarian” since it is the Church that transmits to us Christ’s revelation through
Sacred Scripture and its living Tradition, and alone makes possible for us an adequate faith-response
(cf. PCP II 65).
Inculturated
127. This Catholic faith in God and in Jesus Christ is never separated from the typical Filipino faith in
family and friends. On the one hand, we live out our faith in God precisely in our daily relationships with
family, friends,
fellow workers, etc. On the other hand, each of these is radically affected by our Catholic Faith in God our
Father, in Jesus Christ His only begotten Son, our Savior, and in their Holy Spirit dwelling within us
in grace. “This is how all will know you for my disciples: your love for one another” (Jn 13:35; cf.
PCP II 72-73, 162, 202-11).
B. The Three Essential Dimensions of Faith
128. Vatican II explains this faith-response as follows: “By faith man freely commits his entire self
to God, making ‘the full submission of his intellect and will to God who reveals,’ and willingly
assenting to the Revelation given by Him” (DV 5). Christian Faith, then, touches every part of us: our
minds (believing), our wills (doing), and our hearts (trusting). Let us briefly examine each aspect in
turn.
Believing
129. Faith involves our basic convictions as Christians. “For if you confess with your lips that Jesus
is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead; you will be saved” (Rom 10:9).
John sums up his Gospel with: “These things have been recorded to help you believe that Jesus is the
Messiah, the Son of God, so that through this faith you may have life in his name” (Jn 20: 31).
Faith, then, is knowing, but not mere “head knowledge” of some abstract truths. It is like the
deep knowledge we have of our parents, or of anyone we love dearly. Christian Faith, then, is
personal knowledge of Jesus Christ as “my Lord and my God” (Jn 20:28). Christ solemnly assures
each of us: “Here I stand knocking at the door. If anyone hears me calling and opens the door, I will
enter his house, and have supper with him, and he with me” (Rv 3:20).
Doing
130. But besides believing, faith is also doing. As St. James writes: “My brothers, what good is it to
profess faith without practicing it?” (Jas 2:14). Christ himself taught: “None of those who cry out
‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of God, but only the one who does the will of my Father in
heaven” (Mt 7:21). Faith, then, is a commitment to follow (obey) God’s will for us. This we see
exemplified in Mary’s “I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be done to me as you say” (Lk 1:38).
PCP II brings out this “doing” dimension of faith as “witnessing” through “loving service” of
our needy neighbors. In our concrete situation, particularly urgent is the call for: 1) deeds of justice
and love; and 2) for protecting and caring for our endangered earth’s environment (cf. PCP II 78-80).
131. Of course, we realize that we often do not do what we affirm in faith. But this awareness of our
failures emphasizes all the more the essential place of behavior in authentic Christian Faith. It also
makes us more conscious of our need for Christ’s Spirit to live out our faith in our actions. “For apart
from me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5). “Before this faith can be exercised, man must have the grace
of God to move and assist him; he must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart
and converts it to God” (DV 5).
Entrusting/Worshipping
132. Beyond believing and doing, faith is also entrusting oneself into God’s hands. Abraham, our
father in faith, at God’s command left everything to set out for a foreign land. Against all human odds
Moses trusted Yahweh to free the Hebrews from their slavery in Egypt. In the New Testament, Jesus
worked signs and cures only with those who trusted in him. He promised the possessed boy’s father:
“Everything is possible to a man who trusts” (Mk 9:23).
133. Faith, then, is from the heart __ the loving, trusting, and hoping in the Lord that comes from
God’s own love flooding our hearts. This trusting Faith “lives and grows through prayer and worship”
__ personal heartfelt conversation with God that is the opposite of mindless, mechanical repetition of

memorized formulas. Genuine personal prayer and group prayer find both their inspirational source
and summit of perfection in the Liturgy, the Catholic community’s official public Trinitarian worship
of the Father, through Jesus Christ our Lord, in the Holy Spirit (cf. PCP II 74-77).
C. Faith and Three Classic Questions
134. These three aspects of our Christian Faith __ believing, doing, prayerful trusting __ respond to the three
classical questions posed to every person in life, and to St. Augustine’s famous triple definition of faith. To the
question
“What can I know?” Christian faith responds that we can know God as Our Father and Christ as Our Lord
(credere
Deum/Christum). “Know that we belong to God . . . that the Son of God has come and has given us
discernment to
recognize the One who is true” (1 Jn 5:19-20). Pagkilala sa Ama, sa Anak at sa Espiritu Santo.
135. “What should I do?” is answered curtly by “Keep His commandments” (1 Jn 2:3), which means to “love
in deed
and truth and not merely talk about it” (1 Jn 3:18). This demands acting on the credibility of God’s
teachings in Christ as true and dependable (credere Deo/Christo).
136. Finally, to the question “What may we hope for?” Christian Faith celebrates in prayer and sacrament the
unshakeable hope that “neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the
future, nor powers; neither height nor depth nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the
love of God that comes to us in Christ Jesus, our Lord” (Rom 8:38-39). In brief, this hope means to believe in
God
“with your whole heart, with your whole soul, and with all your mind” (Mt 22:37), entrusting ourselves to Him
in love
(credere in Deum/Christum).
D. Faith and Salvation
137. But faith is not some “answer box” __ it is not some “thing” we have, keep, and own. Rather,
real faith is a force within us that by the power of Christ’s Holy Spirit gradually works a
transformation in our daily thoughts, hopes, attitudes and values.
In religious terms, we know that faith is necessary for salvation __ it is the “beginning of our
salvation” (cf. Trent, ND 1935; CCC 161). For “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb
11:6). From experience we realize that faith brings us fuller life which can be described by three basic
values: genuine personal maturity, freedom and happiness.
Maturity
138. Faith is a growth in personal maturity because it helps us “put childish ways aside” (1 Cor
13:11). It develops a basic honesty in us before God and man by making us aware of the sacrifices
demanded by authentic human love. It grounds our own self-identity in the fact that we are sons and
daughters of the Father, redeemed by the Blood of Christ our Savior, and inspired by their indwelling
Holy Spirit.
Freedom
139. Faith in Christ frees us from preferring “darkness rather than light” (Jn 3:19), “the praise of
men to the glory of God” (Jn 12:43). Without faith in God, we are at the mercy of “carnal allurements,
enticements for the eye, the life of empty show” so that “the Father’s love has no place in us” (1 Jn
2:15-16). As Scripture warns us: “the world with its seductions is passing away, but the man who does
God’s will endures forever” (1 Jn 2:17).
Spiritual Joy
140. In so liberating us, faith in Christ fosters the value of spiritual joy. So Mary proclaimed: “My
soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Lk 1:46-47). John
the Baptist was “overjoyed” to hear Christ’s voice __ “that is my joy, and it is complete” (Jn 3:29).
Christ himself taught his disciples “so that my joy may be yours, and your joy may be complete” (Jn
15:11), a “joy no one can take from you” (Jn 16:22). For Christian Faith is our response to Christ’s
“Good News,” lived in the Spirit whose fruits are “love, joy, peace, patience, endurance, kindness,
generosity, faith, mildness and chastity” (Gal 5:22).
III. PARADOXICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF FAITH
141. Christian Faith presents us with a number of paradoxes that help us grasp its complex reality.
A. Certain, Yet Obscure
142. The first is that Faith is both most certain yet obscure (cf. CCC 157-58, 164). In common
usage we speak of “taking things on faith” when we are not sure. We live in a secular age where “to
be sure” means being able to prove it by experiment and “scientific” means. But this is a rationalistic
illusion. We have been “brainwashed” by our own creation of today’s scientific technology.
143. As Filipinos, we realize that none of our major personal decisions, nor our basic ideals and attitudes
towards life,
freedom, love, etc. could ever be “proven” by scientific experiment. Our family, our friends, our
community, our vocation in life __ all depend on the vision, inspiration and strength we call “faith”. It
is the most “certain” of all we know because it is the foundation upon which we build our lives. But
how are we sure of this “faith-foundation”?
144. Such a sure foundation could never come from ourselves, or from other limited men or women. It could
never arise
from some self-evident truth, or some logical deduction that compels assent (CCC 156). All these need to
be, themselves, grounded on some unshakeable foundation. Only the very Word of God could possibly offer
such a
foundation. Faith is certain because it rests on God who reveals Himself in the person of Jesus Christ, present
to us in His
Spirit. We are certain of our Faith because it is our personally committed loving knowledge based on the
convincing signs of God revealing Himself in Jesus Christ, and present to us in His Church through
word, service, fellowship, and sacrament.
145. But this certainty of Faith does not mean everything is clear and obvious. On the contrary, we
believe God is “Mystery”, that is, He is always more than we can ever fully comprehend. St. Paul
teaches us: “Now we see indistinctly, as in a mirror” (1 Cor 13:12). “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2
Cor 5:7). But this obscurity which we experience even in our deepest human relations does not destroy faith’s
firmness. We instinctively recognize that persons, and especially the all-personal God, can never be
reduced to being “proven” by scientific experiment.
B. Free, Yet Morally Obliging
146. Faith’s second paradox is that it is both free and morally obliging (cf. CCC 160). Our Christian
Faith is a free response. No one, not even God, forces us to believe.
God calls men to serve Him in Spirit and in truth. Consequently they are bound to Him in conscience but not coerced.
God has regard for the dignity of the human person which He himself created: the human person is to be guided by his
own
judgment and to enjoy freedom (DH 11).
We Filipinos experience this paradoxical combination of freedom and obligation in our family
relationships and friendships. Persons who love us the most have the most claim on us, yet force us
the least. We naturally respond to them in love. God, who by loving us the most has the greatest claim
on us, leaves and keeps us most free.
C. Reasonable, Yet Beyond Natural Reason
147. A third paradox is that Christian Faith is both reasonable, yet more than natural reason (cf. CCC
155-56). Christian Faith is in no conflict with our reason. On the contrary, only rational creatures can believe.
Yet faith itself
is a grace that enlightens our minds. “Unless you believe, you will not understand” (Augustine’s quote of Is
7:9). Our faith in
Christ illumines our reason because we believe him who claims “I am the light of the world. No follower of
mine shall ever
walk in darkness; no, he shall possess the light of life” (Jn 8:12; cf. Vatican I, ND 135).
D. An Act, Yet a Process
148. A fourth paradox highlights Faith as both a particular act, yet perseverance in a life-long
process that is the beginning of eternal life (cf. CCC 162-63). John’s Gospel declares: “Eternal life is
this: to know you, the only true God, and him whom you have sent, Jesus Christ.” (Jn 17:3). But this
faith in Christ is much more than a single, personal decision for Christ. It is an enduring way of life
within the Christian community, the Church. In fact it is the principle of our new life in Christ, which gives
us a foretaste of life-with-him in heaven. St. Paul wrote: “The life that I now live is not my own; Christ is
living in me. I still
live my human life, but it is a life of faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal
2:20). Faith as
“following Christ” must be gradually and perseveringly developed so that it comes to touch every aspect of our
lives,
throughout our whole lives.
E. A Gift, Yet Our Doing
149. Faith’s fifth paradox is that it is both a gift, a grace from God, yet something we do (cf. PCP II
68; CCC 153-55). It is a gift because “No one can come to me,” Jesus said, “unless the Father who
sent me draws him” (Jn 6:44). St. Paul confirms this: “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except in the
Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 12:3). Our Christian Faith, then, is not merely of our own doing. It depends upon
God for two things: first, God’s free gift of revealing Himself throughout salvation history; second,
for the grace of the Holy Spirit’s interior illumination and inspiration which “gives to all joy in
assenting to the truth and believing in it” (Vat. I, DS 3010; ND 120).
150. But God’s “gift” of faith demands our free cooperation with others. St. Paul explains this: “Faith, then,
comes through hearing, and what is heard is the word of Christ” (Rom 10:17). Our hearing of Christ’s word
today
depends on the preaching and teaching just as it did in the time of the Apostles (cf. Mt 28:20; Acts
2:42; 4:25). This “hearing” means not only listening to the Word of God in Scripture and to Church
teaching. It also involves discerning God’s presence to us through events in our lives, our
companions, our inner thoughts, yearnings and fears, etc. In brief, faith is also our active response to
the witness to Christ and the Gospel given us by others. This active response is motivated and inspired
by the prayer and worship we share with our fellow members of Christ’s Church.
F. Personal, Yet Ecclesial
151. Faith’s sixth paradox is its personal yet ecclesial nature. It is first of all the Church who
believes and thus supports and nourishes our faith (cf. CCC 168-69). We received the grace of faith
when we were baptized and received into the Christian community, the Church. Within our Christian
families and our parish community, the faith implanted in Baptism grows and matures. Through
catechesis, through the Sacrament of Confirmation, through the Word of God preached and explained,
and especially through the Eucharistic celebration of Christ’s Paschal sacrifice, we grow in faith.
Our personal faith in Christ is supported and intensified by our fellow members in the parish or
BCC, according to God’s own plan. For “He has willed to make men holy and save them, not as
individuals without any bond or link between them, but rather to make them into a people” (LG 9).
152. Christian faith has many different adherents and forms, even in our country. But a central
feature of Catholic Faith is its ecclesial structure. God always revealed Himself in the Old and New
Testaments in terms of a community. Moreover, this revelation has been handed down through the
Church’s tradition to us today. It is in the Church that we Catholics experience the power of the Risen
Christ through the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is in the Church, the body of Christ, that the Catholic
Filipino meets Christ in God’s Word in Scripture, in Church teaching, in the liturgical, sacramental
praise and worship of God, and in the ministry of service of one another.
153. Christ is personal Savior to Filipino Catholics not as private individuals, but as members of a
community of salvation wherein we meet Jesus and experience his saving power. Faith is never just
something private or individualistic, but a sharing in the Christian community’s faith. This faith is in
living continuity with the Apostolic Church, as well as being united to all the Catholic communities
today the world over. Vatican II well describes the origins of this ecclesial dimension of faith:
154. “As the firstborn of many brethren, and by the gift of his Spirit, Christ established, after his
Death and Resurrection, a new brotherly communion among all who received him in faith and love;
this is the communion of his own body, the Church, in which everyone as members would render
mutual service in the measure of the different gifts bestowed on each” (GS 32).
IV. MARY: MODEL OF FAITH
155. Many Filipino Catholics probably learn more about Faith from their devotion to the Virgin
Mary than any other way. This is perfectly grounded in Scripture which portrays Mary as the
exemplar of faith. Through her “Yes” at the Annunciation, Mary “becomes the model of faith” (AMB
35; cf. CCC 148). Luke stresses the contrast between Mary’s faith and the disbelief of Zachary by
Elizabeth’s greeting. “Blest is she who trusted that Lord’s words to her would be fulfilled” (Lk 1:20,
45). John Paul II writes that “in the expression ‘Blest are you who believed’ we can rightly find a kind
of ‘key’ which unlocks for us the innermost reality of Mary, whom the angel hailed as ‘full of grace’ ”
(cf. RMa 19).
156. Mary perfectly exemplified the common definitions of faith as “full submission of intellect and
will” and the “obedience of faith” (Rom 16:26; 1:5; cf. DV 5). But she did it personally,
with all her human and feminine “I”, and this response of faith included both perfect cooperation with the “grace of God
that
precedes and assists,” and perfect openness to the action of the Holy Spirit, who constantly brings faith to completion by
his gifts
(DV 5; cf. LG 56).
Luke carries this theme of Mary’s faith into his second inspired book where he describes her presence
among “those who believed” in the apostolic community after the Resurrection (cf. Acts 1:14).
157. Mary is truly an effective inspiration to us because she constantly exercised faith in all the
realities of ordinary, daily living, even in family crises. Luke’s account of the “finding in the Temple”
offers a perfect example (cf. Lk 2:41-52). There is the first stage of astonishment at seeing Jesus in the
temple, in the midst of the teachers. Astonishment is often the beginning of faith, the sign and
condition to break beyond our “mind-set” and learn something new. Mary and Joseph learned
something from Jesus that day.
158. Second, there is distress and worry, real anguish and suffering. As with the prophets, God’s
Word brings good and bad fortune. Mary was already “taking up the Cross” of the disciple of Christ.
Third, there is often a lack of understanding. Both Mary and Joseph, and later “the Twelve,” could not
understand what Jesus meant. Faith is not “clear insight” but “seeing indistinctly, as in a mirror” (1
Cor 13:12).
Finally, there is the fourth stage of search wherein Mary did not drop the incident from her
mind, but rather “kept all these things in her heart.” Faith is a continual search for meaning, for
making sense of what is happening by uncovering what links them together. Like the “scribe who is
learned in the reign of God” Mary acted like “the head of a household who brings from his storeroom
both the new and the old” (Mt 13:52).
159. Since faith is the key to Mary’s whole life, from her divine motherhood to her “falling asleep in
the Lord,” her life is a real “pilgrimage of faith” (LG 58). That makes her our model and support in
faith. But beyond our individual ‘faith lives,’ John Paul II has brought out its wider significance.
I wish to draw on the ‘pilgrimage of faith’ on which the Blessed Virgin advanced . . . This is not just a
question of the Virgin Mother’s life-story, of her personal journey of faith . . . It is also a question of the
history of the whole people of God, of all who take part in the same ‘pilgrimage of faith’ (RMa 5; cf. 14-
18).
INTEGRATION
160. Faith is a reality touching our whole selves __ our minds (convictions), our hands and will
(committed action) and our hearts (trust). The objective aspects of Christian faith, exemplified in
doctrine (the Creed), morals (the Commandments) and worship (the Sacraments), also manifest faith
as an integral whole. Christian Faith, then, is not something fragmented. It is a living way of life that
integrates our minds, wills, and hearts with its doctrine, morals, and worship, within a sustaining
community of fellow disciples of Christ.
161. To understand the “doctrine” or truth of what faith is, then, demands recognizing its moral and
worship dimensions (doing and praying). Scripture constantly insists on this. “The way we can be sure
of our knowledge of Christ is to keep his commandments” (1 Jn 2:3). And the way to pray is “through
him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, almighty Father, for
ever and ever. Amen.”
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
162. What does “faith” mean in daily life?
Faith in general means the way we know, accept, and relate positively to others, especially the mutual
trust, love, and fidelity we experience in family and friendships.
163. What is meant by “Catholic faith”?
Catholic Faith is “to know, love, and follow Jesus Christ in his Body, the Church” (PCP II 36).
It is that attitude, activity, and process by which we, empowered by God’s grace:
• freely commit our entire selves to God,
• offer our liberty, our understanding and our whole will to God who reveals Himself and His
plan, and
• willingly assent to His Revelation (cf. DV 5).
164. What does faith as “committing our entire selves to God” entail?
Faith as a living response to God includes:
• our minds, believing in God who calls us to salvation in Jesus;
• our will and hands, doing God’s will, and
• our hearts, entrusting ourselves to God in prayer and worship.
165. What are some basic characteristics of Christian Faith?
Christian Faith is:
• total, absolute commitment,
• to the Blessed Trinity: our heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, his own divine Son-made-man,
and their Holy Spirit,
• in a “loving knowledge”
• that helps us grow and mature as Filipinos,
• within our Filipino culture and values, and
• “sends” us forth to spread the Gospel.
166. How important is Faith?
Faith is necessary to become our true selves and thus gain our salvation, that is, union with
God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
To the three human classic questions Faith responds
• What can I know? God our Father and Christ our Lord.
• What should I do? Love others as Christ does.
• What may I hope for? Christ’s presence and life everlasting.
167. What does faith in Christ do for us?
Faith in Jesus Christ:
• helps us to grow into adult persons who can relate to others responsibly and maturely;
• liberates us from being enslaved by sin; and
• opens us to deep joy and happiness in the Lord.
168. What are the paradoxical characteristics of Faith?
Our Christian Faith is at once both:
• certain enough to die for, yet a “mystery” because like love, there is always more to
understand;
• a free personal response to God, yet morally binding in conscience;
• reasonable, yet beyond our natural ways of knowing;
• an individual act of our graced reason, yet also a life-long process;
• a gift of God through both Revelation and interior inspiration, yet something we do nobody
can “believe” for us;
• a personal individual response, yet only possible as a member of the Christian community,
the Church.
169. How can we be sure of our faith?
Faith is something like the loving knowledge we have of our family and friends. We are “sure”
of their love and we try to respond to them. Likewise, through God’s Revelation in Christ, we
are absolutely sure of His love for us, and try to respond through the gift of faith.