and to be realistic, we need to be guided by faith,
rather than be led
simply by our reason and much less by our feelings and
instincts
alone. These latter things give us at best a partial view
of things.
Many times, they give a distorted and dangerous view.
Faith gives us
the global picture of things. It shows us
their causes, effects and consequences. It penetrates
into the essence
of things and the spirit behind the events in our life.
It goes beyond
appearances and our earthly estimations of things,
whether they are
our personal insights or our collective consensus.
It considers
not only the material aspects of things, but
also the spiritual. Not only the natural, but also the
supernatural.
Not only the temporal, but also the eternal. Not only the
mundane, but
also the sacred.
It is actually
the basis of all knowledge, and what gives
proper light, meaning and direction to all our humanly
discovered
sciences and invented technologies. It also points to us
where
everything should end.
Its scope,
range and depth are the largest, the widest and
the profoundest that we can have. More than that, it is
what brings us
the imperishable, eternal life, for it brings with it
invincible hope
and the all-conquering charity that take on anything.
Our human
estimations can only give us so much hope, so
much charity. The benefits they give are of the practical
type that
gives us some measure of comfort and convenience, if not,
wealth,
power, fame. But all these end with time, and are always
in need of a
higher value.
Besides, our
human estimations are highly dependent on
concrete conditions. They would be at a loss when these
conditions are
not met. Not so with faith which can still function in
any situation.
Faith provides
us with the answers to all our questions
and solutions to all our problems especially when all our
human effort
fails. No human error or misfortune can put our faith
useless. No
human success or victory, nor any human condition can
render it
irrelevant.
We should have
recourse to it at the beginning, end and
in-between of all our activities, starting with our
thoughts and
desires, our intentions, and then our words, deeds, and
the different
projects we have.
Faith truly
puts us in touch with reality in its fullness.
That is because it comes from God who gives it to us as a
gift. It is
an expression of divine wisdom which God shares with us,
since we are
his image and likeness, and his adopted children.
We have to be
wary of our tendency to take it for granted,
or to be suspicious of its usefulness in our life,
especially in our
daily concerns. We also need to take it out from the
sacred places and
spiritual environments to which we tend to confine it,
and allow it to
breathe and work freely in our secular affairs.
We also have to
overcome the thought that living by faith
is impracticable. To live by faith is doable, because it
is God’s
desire and on his part, he is giving us everything to
make that
happen. Things just depend on us.
Faith is also
very crucial in our big human affairs, like
our business and politics. Precisely in these areas,
faith is needed
for it would help us put things in order, guiding is our
decisions and
choices that certainly would have a big impact on the
lives of many
people.
Without faith,
and if guided only by our sense of
practicality and convenience and other worldly values, we
sooner or
later would end up cheating, deceiving, lording it over
others,
quarreling, and falling into all sorts of anomalies and
perversions,
precisely because of our wounded and weakened human
nature.
We should
always try to be consistent with our faith. We
need to study the doctrine of our faith well, assimilate
them such as
to make them flesh of our flesh, the working principles
that guide and
shape our life.
But, to be
sure, faith is not only an intellectual affair.
It primarily involves a living relationship with God, our
Creator and
Father. We need to develop and deep interior life, one
that would
always make us aware of God’s presence and docile to the
promptings of
his Spirit.
We need to do
some adjustments in the way we think and see
things, in the way we react to happenings, etc., to make
sure God is
always in the middle of it all.
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