"IT IS THE LORD...."John 21 : 7

The Holy Father reminds us that St. Paul highlights through the story of the conversion of Lydia, that to properly receive and assimilate the Word of God as it is preached and taught to us, we must first open our hearts to the Word and embrace the Truth. “The heart indicates that the first act by which one comes to faith is God's gift and the action of grace which acts and transforms the person deep within.......the heart, the authentic sacred space within the person, is opened by grace that allows the eyes to see below the surface and to understand, that what has been proclaimed, is the word of God."

Nowhere is this better demonstrated than at the first Pentecost. Immediately after the receiving of the Holy Spirit, the Apostles begin to preach to the masses and with great effect.

The Church is the essential realization of Faith. The Baptism of each individual builds up the Mystical Body of Christ which the Church is.

"Knowledge of faith opens a door into the fullness of the saving mystery revealed by God."

The Holy Father draws our attention to the vast numbers of people in modern society who, without any faith, are "searching" for some ultimate truth. This quest can lead them to the mystery of God, and finally to the fullness of revealed Truth. Their quest begins from an indelible summons written on the human heart, from, and leading to, the One who already sets out to meet us when we are sincere.

The CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH , that authentic fruit of the Second Vatican Council, is the ideal vehicle for conveying full and reasoned systematic knowledge of the Faith to which assent of the heart and mind, with God's grace, can be given. It was described by Blessed Pope John Paul II as making "a very important contribution to that work of renewing the whole life of the Church........a sure norm for teaching the Faith." Here, says Pope Benedict XVI, "...we see the wealth of teaching that the Church has received, safeguarded and proposed in her two thousand years of history. From Sacred Scripture to the Fathers of the Church, from theological masters to the saints across the centuries, the CATECHISM provides a permanent record of the many ways in which the Church has meditated on the Faith and made progress in doctrine, so as to offer certitude to believers, in their life of faith."

The CATECHISM he says provides a veritable encounter with the Person who lives within the Church. Beginning with the Creed the CATECHISM proceeds to examine and expound upon the Sacraments through which Jesus Christ is present, operates and continues to build His Church. The liturgy and sacraments give efficacy to the Creed and its profession. And the moral teaching of the CATECHISM is similarly given vitality by being placed in context with faith, liturgy and prayer, providing the fully developed Christian Life.

THE ARMS OF CHRIST ARE OPENED TO WELCOME THE WORLD

To facilitate the use of the CATECHISM during the YEAR OF FAITH the Holy Father has asked the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to prepare a document in co-operation with the other Curial Dicasteries providing Catholics, and thus the whole Church, some guidelines on how to live the Year of Faith most effectively and appropriately at the service of faith and evangelization.

Pope Benedict XVI notes the Church's ability and readiness to confront the spirit of the age with its great skepticism and selective preference to consider only quantifiable "science" at the expense of faith. Yet the Holy Father reminds us that there can be no conflict between Faith and Science because both pursue Truth, though by different routes.

HISTORY will , in the Holy FATHER's view, be of decisive importance in the Year of Faith. Understanding the two thousand year history of the Communion of Saints lived out in Christ's Church will provoke in each person a sincere and continuing work of conversion as we recall the lives of the saints, the failures of the sinners and experience the mercy of the Father held out to everyone.

WE PROFESS YOUR RESURRECTION

ALL THE BISHOPS OF THE WORLD
were assembled for the Second Vatican Council

Now the Holy Father invites all of the Bishops of the world to join with him during the Year of Faith in recalling God's generous and precious gift of Faith. He calls for the year to be celebrated in "a worthy and fruitful manner". He desires all the faithful to intensify their reflection on the Faith, so that all believers may more consciously and vigorously adhere to the Gospel. He emphasizes the importance of this especially in these times of radical change we are all experiencing. The Holy Father sees the public profession of our Faith, in our families and homes, our schools, churches and Cathedrals right around the world, as giving us strength through God's grace, so that we may know our Faith better, and better transmit it to future generations. He requires all religious communities new and old, to find ways to make a public profession of the Credo.

The Holy Father goes on to emphasize that he desires every believer to profess their Faith in its fullness with renewed conviction and with confidence and hope. Inevitably of course, this leads him to the subject of the celebration of the Faith through the Sacred Liturgy. (One is reminded of Father John Zuhlsdorf's theme on WDTPRS? Blog - Save the Liturgy - Save the World.)The Holy Father quotes the Council's document" Sacrosanctum Consilium ": that the Eucharist is "the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed......and the source from which all its power flows." At the same time, he prays that the witness of Faith affecting the lives of believers may grow in credibility - especially in the Year of Faith.

THE SOURCE ..AND SUMMIT
PUBLIC PROFESSION OF OUR FAITH
Chaplain Mike Dalton celebrates Holy Mass in the field during WWII .

These times as a whole, are therefore seen to be as demanding as the separate occasions Saint Thomas Aquinas envisaged, when he wrote :" It is not necessary for salvation to confess one's Faith at all times and in all places, but in certain places and at certain times, when, namely, by omitting to do so, we would deprive God of due honor, or our neighbor of a service that we ought to render to him : for instance, if a man on being asked about his Faith, were to remain silent, so as to make people believe either that he is without Faith, or that the Faith is false, or so as to turn others away from the Faith; for in such cases as these, confession of Faith is necessary for Salvation." ( Summa Theologica , 2-2,3,2. 13th Cent.)

The exceptional witness of early Catholics in those very first centuries after the Resurrection, the Holy Father recalls especially their reverence for and familiarity with the Creed. So great was that reverence and familiarity, that they could and did, recite the Creed from memory. It had been learned by heart. Upon being received into the Church they recited it as a group and then individually, one by one, before the copy of it was formally presented to them.

So we see that the object of the Year of Faith is that every believer should make his own, the task of re-discovering the content of the Faith, professing it, celebrating it , living it and praying it - in sum, being totally renewed as a true follower of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

WORLD YOUTH DAY 2008 OPENING MASS'
"We Proclaim your Death O Lord, and profess Your Resurrection"

A CONTINUOUS CRESCENDO

The  Fullness of God's Love for us.

"The Year of Faith is" the Holy Father tells us, “a summons to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the one Saviour of the world." He expands on this explanation of its purpose by referring to the great mystery of the death and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ which reveal so dramatically the fullness of God's Love for us and open the way for our conversion of life through the forgiveness of sins.

He goes on to quote Saint Paul:

"We were buried......with Him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life."(Rom. 6:4)

Then the Holy Father tells us that “Through Faith, this new life shapes the whole of human existence according to the radical new reality of the Resurrection." We are given a deeper appreciation of this great reality by considering the words of Pope Leo XIII in "Tametsi"(All Saints Day, 1900):

”...He is the origin and source of all good, and just as mankind could not be freed from slavery but by the sacrifice of Christ, so neither can it be preserved but by His power."

 In a wonderful reflection upon a variety of writings of Saint Paul, Pope Benedict explains that "Faith working through love" (Gal. 5:6) becomes a new criterion of understanding and action that changes the whole of man's life.

The LateFather John Hardon S.J.
A remarkable example of a life of Faith working through love.

This is a crucial insight. It is something we have always understood implicitly, but here it is so succinctly expressed that we are able to address its implications more effectively. It is a brilliant expression of the appropriate understanding of Jesus as the "Way". It reveals to us with unavoidable clarity how we must follow the "Way".

Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman's words should leave us unsurprised that we are always able to learn more from the life of Christ: "Every passage in the history of Our Lord and Saviour is of unfathomable depth, and affords inexhaustible matter of contemplation. All that concerns Him is infinite, and what we first discern is but the surface of that which begins and ends in eternity."(Discourses to Mixed Congregations - 19th Cent.)

Moving on the Holy Father explores the implications of this insight, and takes up the ancient formula : " Caritas Christi urget nos" that is " The Love of Christ impels us" (2Cor. 5:14), showing that it is precisely the working of Faith through love, that propels evangelization in every generation and to the ends of the earth. He urges us in effect to re-kindle the fire of apostolic zeal which will fuel the new evangelization. And, he shows that this very act of living out the implications of Faith, itself further develops that Faith and the grace and joy which follow and causes in those evangelized the opening of their hearts and minds to the Divine message.

Two lives exemplifying Faith working through love
in the service of Jesus Christ

The Holy Father quotes the great Saint Augustine to the effect that believers "strengthen themselves by believing". And he shows that in the Saints life we see a continual quest to "…search for the beauty of Faith until such time as his heart would find rest in God". He points out that the mighty writings of Saint Augustine still, after some 1,600 years are leading people to the "door of Faith".

Pope Benedict concludes this section:"Only through believing, then, does Faith grow and become stronger; there is no other possibility for possessing certitude with regard to one's life apart from self abandonment, in a continuous crescendo, into the hands of a love that seems to grow constantly because it has its origin in God."