The urgent call to faith

YES, that's what we need now. All around us are clear signs of faith being ignored if not contradicted. Many people are just relying on their reason and intelligence. Some even just depend on their guts.

This state of affairs is far from what is ideal for man. He becomes simply carnal, not spiritual, when he behaves that way. He separates himself from his God and dares to live on his own.

As to the reasons this phenomenon comes about, the Catechism offers some causes: religious ignorance or indifference, the cares and riches of this world, the scandal of bad example on the part of believers, currents of thought hostile to religion, etc. (29)

This has always been a dangerous condition. And yet how many fall into this pit. As much as possible, we should move away from it. Not in the sense of not using them, but in the sense of going beyond them.

We would be greatly handicapped, our vision narrowed and lacking in depth, if faith is not considered. No matter how bright and clever we are, no matter how good our guts may be, if there is no faith, we would miss out many things. And these are usually the more important things.

Our world simply cannot be ruled by these human faculties. We need something higher, a gift from God that allows us to share in the wisdom itself of God. And together with it, his power, his goodness and all other God's perfections.

As the Catechism teaches, faith brings "superabundant light as man searches for the ultimate meaning of his life." (26) It's our indispensable guide to gain a deeper understanding of things, big or small.

Without faith we become prone to the wild tendencies of our emotions and passions. We can easily be swept off by joy or sadness, and other emotions that always need reason and faith for guidance.

Without faith, reason can go on working without knowing what limits it has, what rules govern it. One becomes susceptible not only to commit errors but also to become proud and blind.

That's when that biblical warning can be applied -- men who have eyes but cannot see, who have ears but cannot hear -- a painful irony that continues to afflict many people, especially some educated ones and political leaders.

When one formally erects reason rather than faith as the ultimate arbiter of truth, of what is good and evil, then the blindness and insensitivity become deep and even invincible.

Sad to say, we see this phenomenon played out quite often even in our public and political life. There are even some politicians who think that faith has no place in politics or in public life. It's strictly personal, private.

This is common and widespread. Indeed, it's one powerful reason that lots of prayers and sacrifices be offered to effect, by the mysterious ways of God, some radical transformation in men.

Attitudes like this unavoidably lead to painful episodes that can affect us all. Attitudes like this can make politics purely mercenary and self-serving, indifferent to moral considerations, and even to good taste and common sense.

Some of the recent developments in our world of local politics appear to be truly embarrassing to all humanity. There is wanton disregard of faith and the moral laws derived from it. There is only shameless pursuit of one's selfish ends.

We should go back to a deeper appreciation of the necessity of faith in our lives. The bias of thinking that faith has nothing to do with our social life has to be destroyed. That's being childish and immature, to say the least.

Once, we realize that, we should then embark on nourishing the faith we receive through baptism. We have to study its doctrine, apply it to our lives since we should not only be hearers but also doers of the word of God.

That faith has to shape our mind and heart, our thoughts and feelings, until we develop a supernatural outlook that transcends without rejecting the merely human faculties of our reason and emotions.