On Faith By Pope Francis

Editor’s Note Pope Francis tells us that faith is a journey—for Christians, a journey that begins in Bethlehem with birth and ends in Jerusalem with death on a cross, which turns out not to be the end at all. That’s just the outline of our faith story, the microcosm of a mystery vast and transformative. Jesus, the person born to Mary, through his journey of faith becomes the Christ and, in so doing, alters time, history, salvation, and death itself.

It is no easy task to follow Christ in faith, but Pope Francis encourages us: “This is the real journey: to walk with the Lord always, even at moments of weakness, even in our sins. Never to prefer a makeshift path of our own. . . . Faith is ultimate fidelity, like that of Mary.”

We cannot know in advance what we will encounter on this journey because the path is revealed only in the walking: “Our life is not given to us like an opera libretto, in which all is written down; but rather faith means going, walking, doing, searching, seeing. . . . We must enter into the adventure of the quest for meeting God; and we must let God search and encounter us.” xiii