Cainta Catholic College

FAITH

A Reflection Paper

Presented to

Mr. Antonio A. Balaba Jr.

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements in

Moral Theology

By:

(NAME)

(DATE)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page(s)

I. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………… 1
Objectives …………………………………………………………………………………………… 2
II. Presentation
a. Holy Bible………………………………………………………………..……………… 2
b. Roman Catholic Teaching………………………………………………..……… 3
c. Contemporary author…………………………………………………….………. 4
d. Personal View …………………………………………………………...………….. 5
e. Reflection ……………………………………………………………….……………. 6
III. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………..………………….. 7
IV. Sources/References…………………………………………………………………….…………….. 8

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 I. Introduction
People were created by God on its 6th day of creation and made sure that everything was
perfect and is according to His plan. He gave everything humans and animals need in order to survive
their life. He has put so much effort and time to make everything possible. He had given them life as a
symbol for His undying love. But as time goes by, the different crisis has come and affected the human
thinking. Different beliefs have been spread in the whole nation which is the cause of the division in
mankind. They have their perspective on how everything begins. Intelligence is what makes a person
have his conclusion on how the world has been created. They somehow trust their instincts and
investigation that involves science and have their belief that God does not exist. Somehow, everything
falls into pieces and faith in God has been slowly removed in other people’s systems.
At some point, human beings experience pain and misery in their life. These life experiences test
their faith in God and unfortunately, a lot of people didn’t succeed in this challenge. It is not easy for a
person to believe in God again after he/she has tragic experiences. It makes the person think of how
God let everything bad happen to them. It makes the person question God’s existence and if He is, is His
love is pure enough to keep mankind away from the danger? People often begin to lose faith in God as a
result of their life experiences. Some face things that seem cruel or unbearable. Others are confronted
with the information presented from a secular viewpoint that rejects God. Through experiences like
these, people start questioning whether the God of the Bible truly has the answers to life’s problems. As
they begin to doubt God, their faith begins to waver and weaken. As a result of their doubts, they may
stop worshipping and communicating with God, which in turn, makes it even easier for their faith to
diminish and eventually die (Christian Aid Ministries 2020).
Even though some of us don’t have any faith in God and don’t even treat God as our creator,
we can’t deny the fact that God exists. Faith is the most important practice a person should have.
Believing in God and trust in whatever plan He has is a must. Experiencing a crisis in life is not and will
never be a shred of evidence that there is no God. Kenny Lane (2019) once stated that having faith is
having trust. You have to trust with your entire being that God has your back, that he will help you and
take care of you. He knows what is best, but to truly embrace what he has planned for you, you have to
fully trust. Our trust is not foolish, for our God is both faithful and good. It doesn’t matter how broke we
are only if we trust God from His doings. All we need to do is to give our hearts to God and ask for His
guidance in your life.

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Objective
1. To identify the importance of having faith in God
2. To be the way for someone in clearing his mind and help him believe again in the words of God
3. To enlighten everyone in the beliefs they once had that is completely wrong and be an
inspiration for everyone to continue their life in God’s desires

II. Presentation
a. Holy Bible
Every human needs to have someone that will guide them in life and keep them away into
not wasting it. Every person has their own beliefs in life that will all fall into believing in one God.
According to the bible verse Mark 11:22-24, And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I
say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not
doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be
yours. Believing in the name of Jesus doesn’t give you the benefit of the doubt. Thus, it will give you
the assurance in living life to the fullest. This was supported by Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith, it
is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that
he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
God is all-knowing. He knows everything in this world and He only has access in one’s life.
James 1:6 states that But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who
doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. Psalm 46:10 also states that Be still,
and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! God is
the superior of everything. We cannot see something that He can see. We can’t predict what will
happen next but He has the power to see it. Although He is our God the Almighty, He didn’t take this
opportunity to manipulate everyone. He has given us the right to make our own decision and learn
from the mistakes we made. Being the all-knowing one doesn’t give Him the idea of controlling all
mankind with their life.
Having faith in God means trusting Him with His plans. Proverbs 3:5-6 says that Trust in the
Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight. Don’t be afraid to give yourself to the Lord and let Him do and
arrange your life according to His will. We can’t deny the fact that we are afraid to trust Him again
especially when something bad happened to our life but as the bible verse says, Mark 5:36

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Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” God is there to lend His
hand to someone who is in need. He doesn’t raise and waste His effort only for mankind to be afraid
in trusting Him.

b. Roman Catholic Teaching

The Catholic church has its perspective about faith in God. They believe that a way for
salvation and eternal life is through faith in God. If you trust God with all His works and plans for a
person, there will be no doubt that you are in a safe space. According to Peter Kreeft from Catholic
Education Research Center, Faith, hope, and charity are, quite simply, the three greatest things in
the world. We cannot possibly overemphasize their importance. Together they make up the one
thing necessary. Anyone who has no faith in God, no hope in God, and no love of God cannot go to
heaven because heaven would be hell to him. He could not endure or enjoy the presence of God
after death any more than he did before death. Our life is a gift from God. We have no right to waste
and believe in someone that doesn’t even exist.
The art of teaching of the Roman Catholic about the faith is based on how Jesus taught way
back then. The Archdiocese of Cardiff stated that We are ordinary people who strive daily to live up
to the teachings of Jesus and to worship Him each week. The best of us are reputed as great saints;
the worst of us are notorious sinners. What we have in common is that we believe that God is real,
that the Catholic Church on earth enables us to worship and receive God’s teaching in the way most
pleasing to God, and that, despite our weakness, we continue the struggle to live as followers of
Jesus in the face of the difficulties and temptations which surround us. A person doesn’t need to be
an extraordinary one in order to have so many blessings in life. As long as the intentions and the
love for God are pure, it is enough to be called the son of God.
According to Confirming to Jesus Ministry, Faith in God is based on knowing Him and
establishing a strong and lasting relationship with Him. When we know someone well and we know
that this individual is dependable, trustable, and reliable, then we can have faith in him or her. The
same thing happens when we get to know God and establish a relationship with Him: we learn more
and more about Him as we go and we learn that He is dependable, trustable, and reliable, we learn
that we can rest assured that God is a soft spot where to land and a loving, protective Father that
shelters His children and keeps His Word and Covenant with them. Giving yourself a chance to know
God is something that you should be proud of. You just need the time to accept the fact that God is

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there for you no matter what and He is the only God you should believe and trust for the rest of
your life.

c. Contemporary Author
Confucius once said that “Death and life have their determined appointments, riches and
honors depend upon heaven,” and “Heaven means to be one with God.” In his statements, he
clearly said that God truly exists in his life. He believes in the power of God that the only way to be
in heaven is through doing good actions and have faith in Him. Heaven is the concept that most
people don’t believe in and make them question their existence. But once you started accepting God
in your life, you will make yourself believe and have that certain goal of being with God in heaven in
the end. Confucius also taught an important principle of philosophy, that “The object of the superior
man is truth.” Confucius renounce his faith in God because he knew that having that someone
whom you can trust in your life without any judgment is a necessity.
A Danish philosopher named Soren Kierkegaard also renounced his belief in God. His famous
Leap of Faith tells us the idea of trusting God with our own life. Kierkegaard stated that “God creates
out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful: he
makes saints out of sinners.” The obvious connotation of the phrase Leap of Faith is that religious
faith is a blind leap, a close-your-eyes kind of moment or series of moments where, in the face of
insufficient evidence, you somehow trust God with your life anyway. Every person will have the
moment in their lives that they have to choose between two complicated options. In this kind of
situation, you need to choose wisely because of the consequences you may have when you choose
the wrong one. But according to Kierkegaard, as long as you are with God, you will feel that you are
not alone in the battle. He will guide you to the right path and will never make you suffer in your life
and it seems that everyone wants to have that kind of life.
In addition to that, St. Augustine stated that the human person faces tremendous obstacles
in the effort to arrive at truth—that is, the mind’s conformity with reality—because of the weakness
of his fallen nature. Unable to know himself clearly because of his pride and his passions, the person
necessarily fails in his quest to understand reality. Confusion has been playing its role in someone’s
system. Problems will constantly come into the life and may cause the person to feel lost and empty
at the same time. But if by faith a person comes to accept the role of God and grace in his life, he
gains two enormous advantages -- pride and passion and the revelation. Faith in God will act as a

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light through the darkness. In times that a person will be giving up on his/her life, God will be its
source of strength.

d. Personal View
From my point of view, having faith in God is the greatest gift you could offer to Him.
The idea of denying God in our life is nonsense. It just proves that you are very ungrateful with the
life God has given you. Science doesn’t explain everything in this world. Many hypothetical theories
are there saying things such as the existence of the universe and how a monkey evolved into a
human that is completely different from the sayings in the bible. Yes, each one of us has different
beliefs in life. But I am here to say what I think is right.
Experiencing pain and misery in life is normal for a human being. It becomes a part of
life. I believe that all the triumphs we have in life are a challenge from God to test our faithfulness
for Him. Sadly, most people don’t recognize it as a challenge. They treat every problem as a
punishment for anything bad they did in their lives. This kind of thinking just gives the person the
reason to hate God more and not to trust Him with everything again. It gives them the reason to
trust their own instinct and create theories without any connection with God. Superiority has come
to other people’s senses. They think that they are the greatest among the greatest and all the
research and study things they did are right. They are expecting that people will start to praise and
worship them with the theories they did in this world. I think that God is glad that people used the
gift of intelligence He has given. But too much of it is not healthy anymore especially when the use
of intelligence resulted from disrespecting God.
Can you imagine your life without anything? No sources of food and water, no kinds of
entertainment, you don’t see any living things and everything is just empty and lifeless. And I bet
you know where everything comes from. There is no scientific explanation for how everything was
created. There are no theories about why there are living things and where they are coming from. If
we will start looking for an explanation about this, the bible will provide the answers we need. God
has provided everything for us and it is our responsibility to respect and protect His reputation. He
even sacrificed His son’s life in order to save us from our sins and yet nothing happened. People are
just here in this world wasting and ending their lives on their own. For once in our lives, let’s keep
everything straight. Our lives are so precious to waste in doing nonsense things and believe in
something that our fellow human beings were made. If we are basing our beliefs in something that

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we see, hear, and touch, then how come you believe that you have your brain without actually
seeing it other than using any kind of technology?

e. Personal Reaction/Reflection
Believing and trusting God is a choice for someone that in fact, shouldn't be. It will never be
a choice for someone who knows the importance of having God in your life. It is an idea that
everybody should have in the sense that you're praising God not because you need to, but because
you accepted God already. I wonder why there are so many people who lost their faith in God. Are
the problems they have in life are enough to throw the idea of being with God? Are their
intelligence quotient is high enough to consider themselves as all-knowing and disregard the
existence of God? I couldn't imagine the life of a person without God and besides, I don't want to
know the feeling of it.

When a person is experiencing a problem in life and he/she doesn’t know what to do,
talking with God will help you lessen the burden you are feeling. Admit it or not, there are times in
your life that no one’s there for you. It’s like you want to release the problem you have but it seems
like nobody’s available to hear all your rants. With that, you feel so lonely and empty at the same
time. You always don’t realize that God is there for you. He is willing to listen to the problems you
have and how miserable you are. You don’t realize how lucky you are that God is there to take all
your worries away and make you feel that you are not alone in your battle. Imagine yourself with
this kind of feeling that whatever challenge you are and you will face in your life, you will fear no
more because you know that there is someone who will guide, support, and be with you for the
rest of your life, none other than the Almighty God. It’s like no matter how small or big your
problem is, you are just there and face it bravely because you know that God is with you. He will
find a way to help you and overcome the struggles in this world.
In addition to that, is accepting God is more helpful than living with something that is all a
lie and we don’t have any proofs that all the ideas are true and justifiable? Is talking to God is the
best way you can do especially when you have a problem? Being with God feels like you are living
an eternal life. You will still experience miseries but the feeling was just full of positivity. You can’t
get enough of spreading positiveness in life because it is all you feel the whole time you started
accepting God in your life. For example, is having suicidal thoughts. You won’t have any thoughts of
ending your life in your way because you are problematic. You just knew that God wouldn’t like
that idea. You are just there and trust the faithfulness you have for Him and continue living with

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 God the center of your life and relationship with other people. Faithfulness to God is something
that should never replace by anything in this world.
III. Conclusion
In this time of our life, we should be able to decide whether live with God and expect eternal life
or live without Him and regret it in the end. Faith has been the thing where the connection between you
and God started. It serves as a bond that holds you back from being with God. When you start believing
in God, everything seems to be on its right path. You will start to be optimistic in life. You will begin to
appreciate little things around you and start to enjoy wandering about the world in your way. You will
start to develop fear in God. You will do good things without noticing that you are following what God
commanded you to do. Lastly, faith in God will give you the peace of mind that you wanted for so long.
Given that this world is experiencing this kind of pandemic, it is now the time that we should
start to believe that God does exist. We are overcoming some type of virus that could kill anyone at any
time. We somehow pray for our health as well as other people’s health but some of us will feel
disappointed with Him. Some people think that God never exists because He doesn’t make their prayers
come true. Here’s the thing: He listens to every prayer we have and help us as much as He could. Many
of us don’t understand the logic behind the idea of “If God is protecting us from being hurt, then why
would He let my loved ones died?” This is life. We all have our endings. We have our chosen fate. Taking
our loved ones away is not God’s way of hurting us. It only means that the person has finished his/her
mission in life. It is now his/her time to leave this world and be with God eternally. We can’t blame God
for this kind of thing. This is a natural happening regarding the way a person dies. The only thing we
could do and hold ourselves back and ask for guidance from God. Everything is in His plan. Just trust the
process and continue living our life to the fullest. We should always remember that God won’t let us
suffer too much. There are so many big plans ahead and trusting Him is the only way for you to find out
what it is.
God is in our hearts. He is the reason for everything. He is there silently watching us and make
us choose the decision on our own but guide us little by little. God is in us. He is the reason why we feel
love, why we feel guilty every time we did something that is strictly prohibited by Him, and why we are
still here. Simple gratitude by trusting Him will not make you less as a person. Faith in God will not put
you in danger but will give you the eternal life that you deserve. I think we deserve to be loved with no
judgment and hate and God will give that to us without hesitation. God will also provide the truth and
nothing else. God will help us achieve the dreams and goals we have in life that we worked so hard with
the presence of God. The inner peace we want for a very long time will be in our system and will give the

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assurance that everything would be alright. All these things will be achieved by someone by having the
faith in God.

IV. Sources/References

AllAboutPhilosophy.org.Jeff. (2020). Great philosophers. Retrieved from

https://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/great-philosophers.htm.
Anderson, P., et.al (2021). Bible verses about faith: Uplifting scripture to give hope in hard times. Bible
Money Matters. Retrieved from https://www.biblemoneymatters.com/bible-verses-about-faith/.
Archdiocese of Cardiff. (2017). The Catholic faith - what does it mean to be Catholic? Retrieved from
https://rcadc.org/cardiffcatholic/the-catholic-faith /
Bohlinger, T. et.al (2018). Kierkegaard's leap of faith. theLAB. Retrieved from
https://academic.logos.com/kierkegaards-leap-of-faith/
Catholic Culture. Augustine: Reason and Faith, Philosophy and God. Retrieved from
https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/augustine-reason-and-faith-philosophy-and-god/.
Catholic Education Resource Center.User, S. Faith.Retrieved from
https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/religion-and-philosophy/apologetics/faith.html
GCU. Weekly devotional: 4 reasons to trust in god.Retrieved from https://www.gcu.edu/blog/spiritual-
life/weekly-devotional-4-reasons-trust-god.
GospelBillboards. (2020). Have you lost faith in god. Retrieved from https://gospelbillboards.org/have-
you-lost-faith-in-god/.