Faith and ideology

WE have to learn to distinguish the faith from the many

human ideologies that can be inspired by faith. First of all, faith is

a supernatural gift, while an ideology is a system of ideas and ideals

that forms the basis of some human behavior. The former is a divine

gift, while the latter is of human making.

          As a divine gift, the faith will always require God’s grace

for it to be received and lived properly by us. A life of faith will

always be something spiritual and supernatural. On the other hand, the

ideology is just our human way of systematizing what we think is good

and ideal for us. It is a human affair that may or may not be open to

God’s grace. It may or may not be spiritual and supernatural.

          In the wake of the controversy surrounding the Synod on the

Amazon, many church people are accusing others, including the Pope who

also returned the favor, that the faith is being reduced to a human

ideology.

          Now, this is a very intriguing development aside from being

unfortunate and saddening, because all of us would be put into a

quandary as to who really has the faith and who simply is indulging or

developing a human ideology. Are the so-called conservative churchmen

and theologians the only ones with the faith, while the so-called

liberal ones are only having or are just developing an ideology?

          What I know is that faith, being supernatural, will always

involve mysteries and other supernatural truths beyond our capacity to

understand. As such, it requires trust from the believers who exercise

their faith precisely when they would just trust God and the ones God

has given the authority to teach something as coming or revealed by

God.

          They believe not because they understand, but rather because

they trust in the one who presents the truth of our faith. Our faith

just cannot be ruled by our reason alone nor by any other human ways

of knowing things. It will always involve God’s grace.

          This is how the Catechism describes faith:

          “What moves us to believe is not the fact that revealed

truths appear as true and intelligible in the light of our natural

reason: we believe because of the authority of God himself who reveals

them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived.

          “So that the submission of our faith might nevertheless be

in accordance with reason, God willed that external proofs of his

Revelation should be joined to the internal helps of the Holy Spirit.

          “Thus the miracles of Christ and the saints, prophecies, the

Church’s growth and holiness, and her fruitfulness and stability, are

the most certain signs of divine Revelation, adapted to the

intelligence of all; they are motives of credibility which show that

the assent of faith is by no means a blind impulse of the mind.” (CCC

156)

          Faith will always challenge us to know more, to understand

more, to behave better and to be better ourselves. It will never stop

demanding from us. Our ideology, being a human system, somehow gives

us some sense of stability since it is meant to guide us with some

rules and policies. But if it has to be a good ideology, it has to be

open to the impulses of faith.

          It’s in this business of trying to correspond to the

impulses of faith that we, of course, as the Church and individually,

have to find ample ways. We, of course, have to have recourse first to

the spiritual and supernatural means of prayers, sacrifice,

sacraments, etc. But we also need to find the appropriate human means

for this.

          Thus, in the Church, there have been councils and synods and

other collegial ways, led by the proper authority who is the Pope,

that were convoked to discern what the Holy Spirit is trying to tell

us today regarding concrete issues.