Our Catholic faith and the beliefs that express it work hand in hand-like matter and form. Yet, it is possible to distinguish between the faith convictions that define who we are and our verbal expressions of that faith. I was recently in company with two people, one of whom believes in the Genesis story of creation-in six days-as literally true, whereas the other believes in evolution over billions of years; yet both had a deep faith in God as the loving Creator of all. Though they had different beliefs, they shared a common faith. Beneath our beliefs, then, the deep convictions of Catholic faith shape our identity, precisely as they become incarnate in us as persons and communities. So, as you review each faith conviction proposed below, be asking, “What does this mean for my daily life and ministry?”
Faith in God as loving Creator of all that is, ultimate Mystery and yet as close as our heartbeat. Our God intervenes in human history and works in covenant with humankind to bring about God’s reign of compassion and mercy, of justice and peace, of holiness and fullness of life for all. Our one and only God is yet a Loving Community of three divine Persons. In sum, “God is love” (1 John 4:16) and calls us to so live.
Faith in Jesus Christ as God come among us as one of ourselves, fully human and fully divine. Jesus modeled “the way, the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6)-how to live into fullness of life as people of God. By his dying and rising, Jesus is the Christ, the promised Messiah, the Savior of all humankind who empowers us to live “the way” of disciples.
Faith in the Holy Spirit as God’s ever-present and effective love-grace-that “works” constantly in our hearts and lives. Through the ebb and flow of every day, the Spirit calls and prompts toward holiness, inspiring and sustaining us to live in “right relationship” with God, others, and creation.
Faith in people as made in God’s own image and likeness (Gn 1:27) and alive by the very lifebreath of God (Gn 2:7). Our God-given dignity, worth, and equality as persons are affirmed beyond all doubt by the Incarnation (through which God took on our human estate). Though we are capable of sin, we are essentially good and graced, fitted toward living as partners for God’s reign.
Faith in life as a gracious gift from God for us to embrace and celebrate, to cherish and defend, from womb to tomb. Or life is sacramental in that we can encounter God’s presence and grace through the everyday. Convinced of the sacramentality of all of creation, we believe that through seven “ordinary” signs (water, bread and wine, etc.) and by God’s saving work in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit assures that they cause the grace which they symbolize. The climatic sacrament is Eucharist that mediates the real presence of Jesus Christ, “body and blood” presence.
Catholic Faith—Catholic Identity
Of course there are other dimensions that characterize our Catholic tradition, and these will be examined in the second part of this essay, but these five serve as the bedrock from which the living water of faith can flow. They remind us that our identity is rooted in God’s gracious love expressed clearly in Jesus Christ and continually present in our lives through the Holy Spirit.
Faith and Discipleship
At the Last Supper as recounted in the Gospel of John, Jesus conveyed to those gathered the essences of discipleship: to live lives that are reflective of God’s love. Having promised the gift of the Spirit as comforter and guide, Jesus gave the disciples a “new commandment”—that they love as he had loved, and he loved as God loves. Then he added, “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:31-36). Forever after, then, trying to love as our God and Jesus loves, this was to be the identifying sign of discipleship. The struggle to live faithfully to this mandate must always be the identifying story and vision of our lives as Catholic Christians. Within this “greatest commandment;’ we can readily recognize some particular convictions and mandates that combine to lend us our Catholic identity in faith.
Faith in community and church. God made us relational beings; we are “made for each other.” Our faith teaches that our highest human calling—our fullest identity as human beings—is to live in loving and caring relationships with God, ourselves, each other, and the world. So, we must work together in human communities for the common good of all; a central aspect of Catholic ethics is this emphasis on the common good and everyone’s responsibility to care, not just for ourselves but for each other. Then, as a community of Jesus’ disciples, the Holy Spirit bonds Christians together like the “Body of Christ” to carry on God’s saving mission in Jesus. Within our Catholic community, we inherit the faith handed down to us through both Scripture and tradition. These are the sources of God’s revelation to our lives now—the faith of our people over time—guided by the teaching magisterium of the church.
Faith is whole, requiring us to invest “all our mind, heart, and strength” (Mk 12:33) in living as disciples of Jesus. Our Catholic faith has the capacity to shape our convictions, relationships, and activities, what we believe, our prayer and worship, the ethics and values by which we live. Lived in this life, the great and sure promise is that such faith brings us home to God; as the old Catechism taught well, we are to “know, love, and serve” God in this life to be “happy forever in the next.”
Faith demands us to work for justice and peace, to practice mercy and compassion at every level of existence-personal, communal, and social-political. Catholic faith places great social responsibilities upon its adherents. We cannot fulfill the greatest commandment simply by personal one-on-one charity to the needy and victimized; we must also try to change the social structures that cause people to be poor and oppressed in the first place. It is not enough simply to pray “thy kingdom come”; we must ever try to do God’s will of fullness of life for all “on earth as it is in heaven.”
Faith calls to holiness after the way of Jesus, to live as his disciples-apprentices-trying to love as he loved. Our faith teaches us the phenomenal truth that our God first loves us. Then, through baptism, God calls all Christians to grow ever more deeply into awareness of and response to God’s unconditional love. Echoing the biblical sense of both holiness and justice, we are to grow in “right and loving relationship” with God, ourselves, others, and all creation.
Faith honors Mary and the saints. Mary has pride of place among the communion of saints because of her crucial role in the work of our salvation. As fully human as well as fully divine, Jesus had to be raised and taught like every other child. Imagine the influence that Mary had on his outlook on life, on his values, on his commitments. Then, because he was truly the Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit, and yet born from her womb, we honor Mary with the august title “mother of God.” Likewise, as Jesus on the cross gave Mary to the disciple John as a mother, so we believe that she is the “mother in faith” of all beloved disciples-ourselves. We can ask Mary to pray with us and for us to her divine Son, and likewise the saints who are in God’s eternal presence. Much as we can pray for the living or ask those living to pray for us, so we can ask the saints to intercede for us or we can intercede for the departed who may be still making their way home to God. In this Christian community, the bond of baptism is never broken, not even by death.
Faith that is “catholic.” From the Greek, katha halos meaning “to include everyone” our community should be truly catholic first in that we have a sense of being deeply bonded-like the parts of a body-with the world-wide Catholic community. Then, we should be catholic in that we welcome and fully include all comers in our local parish community. If a Catholic parish is truly catholic, then it communicates clearly that “all are welcome.” Catholicity also requires us to include everyone in our care and concern, without borders, and, according to St. Augustine, to be open to the truth wherever it can be found.
The body of Christ. For us Christians, being part of the church is being part of the Body of Christ with Christ as head and ourselves as members. We see ourselves as a sign to the world, a sacrament to the world that shows forth Christ, that is, Love Revealed. We are, in a word, the family of Christ, the household of Love. The church has a certain structure to help it achieve its mission but the church is born entirely from Christ, so even its structure is one of service.
And this structure, along with all the members of the church, and all aspects of church life are given the Spirit of Love and flow from that Spirit as well. That is the real meaning of what happened on Pentecost itself. The Spirit of Divine Love, flowing out into the community, awakened within certain members the gifts needed for ministry. These gifts continue to flow today.