G iacomo B iffi
THE ABC OF FAITH A Short Proposal for the Year of Faith and After
Translation by Silvano Borruso
PHILIPPINES
Foreword FAITH AND SALVATION Some think that to have faith is something casual, mostly irrelevant, like the color of one’s eyes or hair. Others consider faith as having ‘luck’, just like making money by winning in lottery. Most judge it as something marginal to human existence. Jesus, the only Master who does not disappoint, is not of the same view. He talks of faith as having to do with salvation, as something substantial and necessary, lest our earthly adventure end in failure. There is no talking of faith without mentioning being saved. But saved from what? Should we be saved from our own meaninglessness, or from that of the universe? Does our having come into the world have meaning? Or should we be saved from moral degradation, which contaminates almost everyone: ‘saved from our sins’, as Christian terminology has it? Or is it a question of being saved from the prospect of death coinciding with our destruction? Such prospect would in fact frustrate all of our actions here and now, for if we live only to end up in nothing, we also live essentially for nothing. Faith saves us from all this.
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The ABC of Faith
I DIVINE INTERVENTION At times we are scandalized by God’s silence. Before a world full of anguish and madness, why doesn’t God speak and intervene? God does not speak because He has already spoken, and has nothing more to add after having sent us His living Word, Christ. He does not intervene, because He has already intervened in and through His Son’s mission. He has appointed Him Lord of history, Judge and Savior of all. Properly speaking, the act of faith is to receive this saving initiative, with its highest point and synthesis in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Faith is therefore not primarily an act of the intellect, of the heart, of human sensitivity, as if the human being were to decide how to enter into communication with the Divinity. Faith is our answer to God’s beneficial provocation. It is to open ourselves to the Father’s passionate appeal, which always resonates in proclaiming the Gospel. It is to make room for the Lord who comes to liberate us; it is a surrendering to the transforming fire of the Spirit. The act of faith involves the whole human being: the intellect, for being an act that looks at the whole truth; the will, for the human person decides freely to believe; and love, for calling one to overcome one’s natural selfishness.
The ABC of Faith
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II FAITH AND THE EVENT Today many say that every religion contains something good, or even that all religions are the same: everyone can choose the one that fits oneself best, as one would choose the color of a shirt or a holiday resort. You can say all that, provided you understand that Christianity has nothing to do with it. Unlike all such religious or ethical visions, Christianity is primarily an event: the coming of the Son of God made man, who died on the cross and resurrected. He involves us, provided that we let ourselves be involved, in this event of death, of resurrection, of life destined to be eternal. True enough, Christianity is also a religion, in that it has doctrines like the Trinity, a liturgy with rules, and a moral law. Primarily though, it is a fact, to be received or rejected. That is why it is incomparable. It cannot be placed side by side with other spiritual or ideological positions. The Christian faith is a surrendering to this saving event; it is letting oneself be intimately changed by what happened. Other religious persuasions may be beautiful, good, useful, fascinating; but they have nothing to do with faith.
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The ABC of Faith