Faith is always a path

Faith in God is not a form of knowledge that can be learned like chemistry or mathematics, but remains a belief . . . Since faith demands our whole existence, our will, our love, since it requires letting go of ourselves, it necessarily always goes beyond a mere knowledge, beyond what is demonstrable. And because that is so, then I can always turn my life away from faith and find arguments that seem to refute it . . . we must have the courage not to lose hold of the truth, to stretch toward it and to accept it humbly and thankfully whenever it is given to us . . . belief is never simply there, in a way that would enable me to say at a certain point in time: I have it, and others do not have it. It is something live, which is inclusive of the whole person in all his dimensions – understanding, will and feelings. It can then fasten its roots ever deeper into my life, so that my life becomes more and more nearly identical with my faith; but for all that, it is never just a possession. A man can always still give way to this other tendency within himself and thus fall away. Faith is always a path. As long as we live we are on the way, and on that account faith is always under pressure and under threat. And it is healthy that it can never turn into a convenient ideology. That it does not make me hardened and unable to follow the thoughts of my doubting brother and to sympathize with him. Faith can only mature by suffering anew, at ever stage in life, the oppression and the power of unbelief, by admitting its reality and then finally going right through it, so that it again finds the path opening ahead for a while.

— Pope Benedict XVI, God and the World (excerpted in the invaluable Benedictus; Day by Day with Pope Benedict XVI)

Related: The Believing Atheist