Lumen Fidei: Hearing His Voice, Seeing His Face

In paragraph 28 of Lumen Fidei, Pope Francis points out that faith-knowledge is relational: God reveals Himself to us in relationship. Next, in paragraph 29, he recalls St. Paul’s dictum, “faith comes from hearing”; and this dictum makes a great deal of sense, if you think about it. How do I learn from another? By listening to him and to his words; by making an effort to pay attention. It’s a process that takes time, and that I have to choose to cooperate in, or the learning won’t occur. It’s the same with God, and the process of listening and paying attention is what we call discipleship.

Knowledge linked to a word is always personal knowledge; it recognizes the voice of the one speaking, opens up to that person in freedom, and follows him or her in obedience…. Faith is also a knowledge bound to the passage of time, for words take time to be pronounced, and it is a knowledge assimilated only along a journey of discipleship.

Remember that the root meaning of the word “obedience” is “to listen”. And this is why being a church-goer is not the same as discipleship. Far too much of the time we go to mass and “hang out” with God, but we don’t listen.

This notion of “hearing” as a way of learning is characteristic of the Old Testament; but Pope Francis points out that in the surrounding Greek culture learning was more often related to “seeing”. By the “light” of reason the Greek philosophers contemplated reality, and developed sophisticated logical tools for pursuing universal truths. By means of this kind of analysis, Aristotle showed that there must be some ultimate First Cause, some Unmoved Mover who stands behind the gods and the movement of the heavenly bodies. But Aristotle saw no reason why this Unmoved Mover should take any interest in affairs on Earth. It is only through hearing God through revelation that we know that God is Love, and longs for union with His people on Earth.

Still, Jerusalem and Athens have much to say to each other. The Hebrews thought of sight in terms of learning as well, but also in terms of desire: the lover longs to see the face of his beloved, to pursue her and know her. The Greeks “saw” ultimate truths; the Hebrews “saw” particulars. And all of these things go together. We “hear” God’s voice through revelation, and “listen” through prayerful obedience; we seek to “see” God’s face in prayer; and those of us who are theologically minded can apply the tools of philosophy to both the world as we see it and to the words of the Lord and come to a deeper appreciation and love for Him.

Pope Francis ends paragraph 29 as follows:

Hearing emphasizes personal vocation and obedience, and the fact that the truth is revealed in time. Sight provides a vision of the entire journey and allows it to be situated within God’s overall plan; without this vision, we would be left only with unconnected parts of the an unknown whole.

Ultimately it’s both/and, as usual.

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