Reason for our hope

THAT'S what St. Peter strongly recommended. “Be ready always to satisfy everyone that asks you a reason of that hope which is in you.” (1 Pt 3,15) Especially these days when the Christian way of life is constantly questioned, we need to give uncommon attention to this Petrine indication.

Of course, we have to understand that since our hope is based on our faith and is also expressed in charity—these three, faith, hope and charity, always go together—we are actually being asked to give reason for our faith and our charity also.

We also have to understand that our human reason, while a most powerful tool we have, has its limits. Therefore we cannot expect it to prove everything about our faith, hope and charity. What it can do is to give some convincing arguments that would lend credibility to our faith, hope and charity.

While we are rational beings, we have to realize that we are actually much more than being rational. We are made for believing, hoping and loving. What we know, what we accept as truths just cannot be confined to reasoning and arguments alone.

It would be wrong to confine ourselves to reason alone, although reason we have to use always. But we have to acknowledge its limitations, otherwise, we would fall into what is tantamount to making ourselves the ultimate source of truth, which is a self-evident falsehood.

Anyway, it's actually loving—charity—that would make us know and accept truths that surpass our capacity to reason. Charity has ways that go beyond what our reason can reach. It's what can tackle mysteries which we cannot avoid and which we cannot fully understand.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church has this relevant point to serve as context of what we are saying here so far. I beg the indulgence of our readers to go through this long point which I believe would richly reward our effort.

“In the historical conditions in which he finds himself,” the Catechism teaches, “man experiences many difficulties in coming to know God by the light of reason alone.

“Though human reason is, strictly speaking, truly capable by its own natural power and ligh of attaining to a true and certain knowledge of the one personal God...there are many obstacles which prevent reason from the effective and fruitful use of this inborn faculty.

“For the truths that concern the relations between God and man wholly transcend the visible order of things, and, if they are translated into human action and influence it, they call for self-surrender and abnegation.

“The human mind, in its turn, is hampered in the attaining of such truths, not only by the impact of the senses and the imagination, but also by disordered appetites which are the consequences of original sin.

“So it happens that men in such matters easily persuade themselves that what they would not like to be true is false or at least doubtful.” (CCC 37)

Given this situation, what we can do is to have recourse to spiritual and supernatural means—prayers, sacrifice, acts of charity, recourse to the sacraments, doctrinal formation, etc.—without neglecting the use of reason to explain why we behave according to Christian faith, hope and charity.

This is actually a very demanding task that requires nothing less than an authentic spiritual life nourished by grace and an endless interior struggle to fight against temptations and sin, develop virtues, deepen our knowledge of the doctrine of our faith, etc.

For sure, giving reason to our faith, hope and charity cannot just be a purely intellectual affair. I have witnessed great minds failing to convince people of their faith precisely because they only offer arguments without a living testimony of a consistent, genuine Christian life.

I have also witnessed simple minds who, radiating with true sanctity, offered arguments that, while simple, immediately go to the hearts of those around them. They manage to convince and convert difficult individuals, inspiring souls to go to higher levels of holiness.

The theology they used might not have the aura and rigor of systematic theology, but it's solid theology they used, expressed in forms that promptly read and capture the needs of specific persons at a given moment.

We therefore have to understand that this Petrine dictum to be prepared to give reason to our Christian faith, hope and charity is more a call to authentic sanctity than just an invitation to be intellectually formed.

Saints, like St. John Mary Vianney, are examples of this phenomenon.