Faith

Faith is a virtue, or a gift that God infuses into our souls in Baptism; a gift by which we believe the Truths God Himself has revealed to the Holy Church, and which she proposes to our belief.

By the Church is meant the congregation of all who are baptized (for persons not baptized are out of the Church), and profess the true Faith under a visible Head, that is, the Sovereign Pontiff. I say the true Faith, to exclude heretics, who, though baptized, are separated from the Church! I say under a visible head, to exclude schismatics who do not obey the Pope, and on that account, easily pass from schism to heresy. St. Cyprian well says: "Heresies and schisms have no other origin than this — the refusal to obey the Priest of God and the notion that there can be more than one Priest at one time presiding over the Church, and more than one Judge at a time filling the office of Vicar of Christ."

We have all revealed Truths in the Sacred Scriptures and in the Traditions gradually communicated by God to His servants. But how should we be able to ascertain what are the true Traditions and the true Scriptures, and what is their true meaning, if we had not the Church to teach us? This Church Jesus Christ established as the pillar and the ground of the truth (1 Tim. iii. 15). To this Church our Saviour Himself has promised that she shall never be conquered by her enemies. The gates of hell shall not prevail against her (Matt. xvi. 18). The gates of hell are the heresies and heresiarchs that have caused so many miserable, deluded souls to wander from the right way. This Church it is that teaches us, through her ministers, the truths that we are to believe. Thus, St. Augustine says: "I would not believe the Gospel, were I not moved by the authority of the Church."

THE MOTIVE OF FAITH, AND HOW WE SHOULD MAKE AN ACT OF FAITH.

The cause or motive, then, which imposes on me the obligation to believe the Truths of Faith is, because God, the infallible Truth, has revealed them, and because the Church proposes them to my belief. So we should make an Act of Faith in this way: "O my God, because Thou, Who art the infallible Truth, hast revealed to the Church the Truths of Faith, I believe all the Church proposes to my belief.

This is the reason or motive which makes me believe the Truths of revelation. Let us now see what are those Truths which we are obliged to believe.

THE PRINCIPAL ARTICLES OF FAITH

There are four principal Articles of Faith:

1. There is an ever-present God.

2. He is a Rewarder Who rewards with the eternal glory of Paradise all who observe His law, and punishes all who transgress it with the everlasting torments of hell.

3. In God there are Three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these Persons, though distinct from one another, are but One God, because They are one Essence and one Divinity. Hence, as the Father is Eternal, Omnipotent, Infinite, so are the Son and the Holy Ghost equally Eternal, Omnipotent, and Infinite. The Son is begotten of the Intelligence of the Father. The Holy Ghost proceeds from the Will of the Father and the Son, by the Love with which They love each other.

4. The Incarnation of the Eternal Word — that is, of the Second Person — the Son, Who, by the operation of the Holy Ghost, was made man in the womb of the Virgin Mary — for the Person of the Word assumed the nature of man, so that the two natures, the Divine and the human, were united in the Person of Jesus Christ, Who suffered and died for our salvation. But what necessity was there that Jesus Christ should suffer for our redemption? Man had sinned; and to obtain pardon it was necessary that man should make a full satisfaction to God for the sins that had been committed. But how could man make such satisfaction to the infinite majesty of God? What, then, did God do? The Father sent the Son to take upon Himself our nature; and the Son, Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, atoned to the divine justice on behalf of man. Such is the debt and the love that we owe to Jesus Christ. Denis the Carthusian tells us of a young man who, at Mass, did not kneel down at the words of the Creed, Et homo factus est; upon which a devil with a club appeared to him, and said: "Thou ungrateful wretch, dost thou not thank the God Who was made flesh for thee? If He had done for us what He has done for thee, we should be always prostrate in thankful adoration. And thou dost not even make a sign of thankfulness." Then he gave him a terrible blow with his club and left him half dead.