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Prepared By: Richard G. Pazcoguin
Prepared By: Richard G. Pazcoguin
Pazcoguin
Believing that Christ reveals God to us in and through the Catholic Church, the body of Christ, united in the Holy Spirit.
Faith is our personal response as disciples of Christ of accepting him as Lord and Savior. It is our Please come in! to Christ who stands at the door and knocks (Rv 3:20) (PCP II 64).
It is impossible to live without faith! Faith, as a human reality, is central to our lives.
FAITH IN GOD:
As our total response to Gods revelation: It is to know, to love, to follow Christ in the Church he founded (PCP II 36) As a Theological virtue: Faith is our personal knowledge of God in Christ, expressed in particular beliefs in specific truths by which we adhere to Christ.
FAITH IS PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST, WHO IS OUR TRUTH. FAITH IS OUR WHOLE LIFE IN CHRIST.
TRINITARIAN
For us Christians, Faith is our adherence to the Triune God revealed through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is our friendship with Christ and through Christ with the Father, in their Holy Spirit. Through Christs witness to his Father in his teaching, preaching, miracles, and especially in his Passion, Death and Resurrection, we come to believe in Christ our Savior, in the Father, and in the Holy Spirit sent into our hearts. Our Faith as Catholics, then, consists in our personal conviction and belief in God our Father, revealed by Jesus Christ, His own divine Son-made-man, and their presence to us through the Holy Spirit, in the Church (cf. PCP II 64; CCC 151-52).
INCULTURATED
This Catholic faith in God and in Jesus Christ is never separated from the typical Filipino faith in family and friends. On the one hand, we live out our faith in God precisely in our daily relationships with family, friends, fellow workers, etc. On the other hand, each of these is radically affected by our Catholic Faith in God our Father, in Jesus Christ His only begotten Son, our Savior, and in their Holy Spirit dwelling within us in grace. This is how all will know you for my disciples: your love for one another (Jn 13:35; cf. PCP II 72-73, 162, 202-11).
We can know God as Our Father and Christ as Our Lord. Know that we belong to God . . . that the Son of God has come and has given us discernment to recognize the One who is true (1 Jn 5:19-20). Pagkilala sa Ama, sa Anak at sa Espiritu Santo. Keep His commandments (1 Jn 2:3), which means to love in deed and truth and not merely talk about it (1 Jn 3:18). This demands acting on the credibility of Gods teachings in Christ as true and dependable. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor powers; neither height nor depth nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God that comes to us in Christ Jesus, our Lord (Rom 8:38-39)
DOCTRINE
MORALS
WORSHIP
Faith is knowing, but not mere head knowledge of some abstract truths. It is like the deep knowledge we have of our parents, or of anyone we love dearly. Christian Faith, then, is personal knowledge of Jesus Christ as my Lord and my God (Jn 20:28). Christ solemnly assures each of us: Here I stand knocking at the door. If anyone hears me calling and opens the door, I will enter his house, and have supper with him, and he with me (Rv 3:20). Faith is a commitment to follow (obey) Gods will for us. This we see exemplified in Marys I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be done to me as you say (Lk 1:38). PCP II brings out this doing dimension of faith as witnessing through loving service of our needy neighbors. In our concrete situation, particularly urgent is the call for: 1) deeds of justice and love; and 2) for protecting and caring for our endangered earths environment (cf. PCP II 78-80). Faith is from the heart __ the loving, trusting, and hoping in the Lord that comes from Gods own love flooding our hearts. This trusting Faith lives and grows through prayer and worship __ personal heartfelt conversation with God that is the opposite of mindless, mechanical repetition of memorized formulas. Genuine personal prayer and group prayer find both their inspirational source and summit of perfection in the Liturgy, the Catholic communitys official public Trinitarian worship of the Father, through Jesus Christ our Lord, in the Holy Spirit (cf. PCP II 74-77).
certain enough to die for, yet a mystery because like love, there is always more to understand; a free personal response to God, yet morally binding in conscience; reasonable, yet beyond our natural ways of knowing; an individual act of our graced reason, yet also a life-long process; a gift of God through both Revelation and interior inspiration, yet something we do nobody can believe for us; a personal individual response, yet only possible as a member of the Christian community, the Church.
Faith in Jesus Christ: helps us to grow into adult persons who can relate to others responsibly and maturely; liberates us from being enslaved by sin; and opens us to deep joy and happiness in the Lord.
Faith is something like the loving knowledge we have of our family and friends. We are sure of their love and we try to respond to them. Likewise, through Gods Revelation in Christ, we are absolutely sure of His love for us, and try to respond through the gift of faith.