Faith is primarily acceptance of the Person of God
Sometimes people tend to think of faith and belief as acceptance of some impersonal truths or statements. It is like putting the cart before the horse. First and foremost it is to believe in God and only then we accept whatever he tells us. It is like the child that believes implicitly in the parents. Does the child pause to think whether my parents love me enough to care for me? The growing child loving its parents, experiencing their love in so many ways accepts humbly and often without questioning what the parents are telling. That indeed is an image of what happens in faith. First and foremost we accept God and his love; then we are ready to accept all that he tells us. Do we have a chance to experience the love of God before even knowing him?
Again I ask whether the babe loves the parents instinctively even before the waking up of intellect and free will? The answer is obvious and so it is that if but we consciously turn round and observe all that is happening around us would realize the love of God but often it happens we are too short sighted; we see only the evil around us, the lack of so many facilities and even what we consider basic amenities and grumble: could there be a God who watches over all these? What we forget is that it is far too often the selfishness of human beings and injustices he engages in, that have caused all these havocs, all these inequalities, miseries, ecological disasters, unemployment and the tragedy of human life and we want to put the blame on God.
The Good God made us in his own image & likeness
The God who loves us wants us to be happy. He never created evil, in fact his nature is good and it is impossible for him to create positive evil. He does not even want us to cry even as loving parents are upset when the child cries and try their best to alleviate whatever is ailing their child. The purpose of God in creating the human being is that this being which is made in the very image and likeness of God should be happy as God is happy. The expression image and likeness of God should make us wonder how we could be in the image of God. We cannot take a picture of God but if we were able then we would find that God is three, inviolable, distinct, indestructible PERSONS having numerically identically same one intellect and numerically identically same one will. If we are made in the image of God then we too are made as persons analogically i.e., somewhat like God (isn’t it just wonderful even to think of?).
We too, as images of God, are endowed with some intellect and some free will like God. This is the reason why God never will force us to do anything. He respects our freedom and free choice whatever that be. Further, we are in the likeness of God. To this St. Iraneus has the explanation that God is good and all good; as such he can never choose evil! His will always does good and never evil. It is impossible for him to create evil. Some people imagine that God created the hell. But as total evil and total hatred, it is impossible for God to create such an evil. But from where does it come? The human being as coming from the hand of good God and made in his likeness is also designed to choose good and not evil but the human being in foolishness and wilfulness chose to do the opposite of good and in doing this made the way for the coming about of hell, a state of enmity and distancing from God; it is a voluntarily chosen situation and is self-made and not made by God! It is at the same time a twisting of our human wills and misusing it to do what it was not designed to do. In short: it is an abuse.
Merciful God’s free offer
But God is merciful and offers his pardon and friendship to the humans and in Jesus Christ he even offers us a place in his Trinitarian family whereby we become brothers/sisters of Jesus and sons/daughters of a loving Father and friends of the Holy Spirit. Accepting such an offered relationship with Father, Son and Holy Spirit is what is meant by “I believe in God”. It is first and foremost acceptance of living persons and having accepted them we are ready to accept whatever they tell us. Therefore the emphasis should clearly be on the loving relationship that has accrued from an act of faith in God. We cannot also forget that Faith is a gift of God.
Belief in ONE God
The Nicene Creed (325 AD) has a variant beginning. It says: “I believe in ONE God”. We do not believe in many gods. It is impossible to have many gods because none of them would be all powerful and infinite. They would be mutually excluding.
Philosophically it is impossible to have many gods if by God we mean infinite, greater than whom there can never be another! Therefore God has to be ONE and only ONE. That there is only one God has been the Faith of the Old Testament (at one stage they had thought of God as their tribal God and they did not exclude other gods for other peoples but as time went on through their history and a better understanding of God’s revelation through their prophets they came to acknowledge that there is only one God and he is God of all the peoples; the Babylonian exile opened their eyes and they realized the power of their God when God brought about their return and they were able to rebuild Jerusalem and the Psalmist invites all peoples to acknowledge one God e.g., Ps 47.1 “Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with songs of joy!” & verse 7: “For God is king of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm”. Many other post-exilic (after the return from Babylonian exile i.e., after 537 BC) psalms sing in the same vein. God is God of all the earth and all peoples. The belief in ONE God was proclaimed joyfully and fearlessly; it was vigorously upheld against many periodic aberrations that occurred in the midst of the chosen people. They always came back to their one God. The New Testament also continues the same faith in ONE God. One God is in Three Persons Father, Son and Holy Spirit is an understanding of the revelation we have received through Jesus Christ.
Read CCC nos.199-231.
To be continued next Thursday…