When speaking of faith, a passage from the Gospel of Matthew always comes to my mind. \u00a0When at Caesarea Philippi Jesus asked his disciples, \u201cWho do you say that I am?\u201d to which the apostle Peter responded, \u201cYou are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.\u201d \u00a0Jesus\u2019 response reveals the nature of faith: \u201cBlessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peter\u2019s profession of faith which recognizes Jesus as the Son of the Living God is not a conclusion based on observation and reason, but rather it is a revelation from God himself. \u00a0Faith is a gift. \u00a0Flesh and bone, reason alone, cannot reveal Christ\u2019s divinity to Peter, only God can do it through the gift of faith. \u00a0If faith depended solely on the conclusion of rational argument, it would no longer be faith. \u00a0Faith is a gift that cannot be gained as one gains knowledge from a chemical equation or mathematical proof. <\/p>\n
When Jesus walked on earth two thousand years ago many people saw him and heard him preach, yet not everyone recognized him as the fullness of God\u2019s revelation. \u00a0For example, when Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman at the well as recorded in the fourth chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus said to her, \u201cIf you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, \u2018Give me a drink,\u2019 you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.\u201d \u00a0Recognition of Jesus\u2019 divinity is not obvious nor immediate, but rather requires the gift of faith. \u00a0If it were otherwise, every single person in Judea would have fallen prostrate at his feet recognizing him as God immediately. <\/p>\n
Reason alone cannot give faith because faith comes directly from God, but this does not mean that faith is irrational. \u00a0Arguments from reason for the existence of God give direction, but these alone cannot give faith. \u00a0Faith goes beyond reason without doing violence to it or requiring its negation. \u00a0On Easter Sunday 2009, I heard the Reverend Ignatius Harrison, past Provost of the Brompton Oratory of London preach, \u201cFacts by themselves are not always enough, though always indispensable. \u00a0The facts down on paper do not always convince. \u00a0The disinhinging [sic] of the facts is a supernatural process; they have to be ratified by the gift of faith.\u201d \u00a0 <\/p>\n
The study of facts and critical use of reason is needed to increase our faith, yet what is needed above all is fervent prayer asking God to increase in us the gift of faith. \u00a0May our faith grow deeper and be strengthened by the grace of God like the many who encountered Christ and gently came to recognize Him as the Son of the Living God.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When speaking of faith, a passage from the Gospel of Matthew always comes to my mind. \u00a0When at Caesarea Philippi Jesus asked his disciples, \u201cWho do you say that I am?\u201d to which the apostle Peter responded, \u201cYou are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.\u201d \u00a0Jesus\u2019 response reveals the nature of faith: \u201cBlessed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2533,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n