Lesson 20 Opening Thoughts on Faithfulness: 1814 Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is truth itself. By faith "man freely commits his entire self to God." For this reason the believer seeks to know and do God's will. "The righteous shall live by faith." Living faith "work[s] through charity." 1815 The gift of faith remains in one who has not sinned against it. But "faith apart from works is dead": when it is deprived of hope and love, faith does not fully unite the believer to Christ and does not make him a living member of his Body. 1816 The disciple of Christ must not only keep the faith and live on it, but also profess it, confidently bear witness to it, and spread it: "All however must be prepared to confess Christ before men and to follow him along the way of the Cross, amidst the persecutions which the Church never lacks." 82 Service of and witness to the faith are necessary for salvation: "So every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven." 83 Faithfulness is committing oneself to Jesus Christ. Being faithful requires personal resolve not to wander away from commitments or promises. It's not always easy to be faithful. Christian faith requires trust in God. "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Faithfulness is the Seventh Fruit of the Spirit. Faithfulness in a general sense is meant as, qualities of stability, dependability, and devotion. Faithfulness enables a person to continue doing the right thing, even in the face of difficulty and obstacles. It stems from a deeply rooted confidence in Gods truth and promises. The faithful person remains committed to live and behave in a way consistent with the light that the Spirit has revealed to him or her. The Greek Translation Fidelity (pistis) is common in secular Greek for trustworthiness. It is the characteristic of the man who is reliable. Someone has said that if you do the right thing for the wrong reason, you will eventually do the wrong thing. The virtue of faithfulness enables a person to continue doing the "right thing", for the right reason (out of love and because God is calling them to do so), even in the face of disappointment and difficulty. If our confidence is misplaced, then we will have a difficult time remaining faithful. When we are confident in God's promises, then we will find his strength to be faithful during seasons of trial. "Do all things in the name of God," and you will do all things well. St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life Faith is our firm belief in God and all that He has revealed to us through Holy Mother Church. Faith resides in our intellect; we believe because God is all-knowing (cannot be deceived) and all-good (cannot deceive), so what He tells us is infallibly true. Our faith must be constant. The major creeds of Christianity, the Apostles and Nicene Creeds, both require belief in the Catholic church, although some modern translations incorrectly "soften" the text to say "Christian" rather than "Catholic" (1). The communal implications, and assenting to the beliefs and practices of the whole Church was the only way to guarantee genuineness of belief. The Greek word from which our word heresy is derived is haireo, to choose. This underscores the particularity of heretics, who "choose" their own way forward, as opposed to the universality of Catholics, whose wills are aligned with Christ.
Lesson 20 Closing Thoughts on Faithfulness: Recurring words which are used to describe our faithfulness to do God s will; committed, devoted, trustworthy, reliable, steady, dependable. Our faith must be complete. We completely submit our intellect and will to God. Our faith therefore illuminates our daily life. Our fallen race inherits from its first parents a propensity to sin, but our constant objective must be to live as Holy Mother Church teaches. We seek to live by the theological and cardinal virtues. We consciously avoid the seven capital sins. We go to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass every day if possible, or every Sunday at minimum. We go to Confession every week if possible, or every other month at minimum. We do all this because we have faith that the Catholic Church has Christ s authority to teach us how to prepare for heaven. Our faith is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed. We have faith only if we believe in Christ s entire public revelation. The Catholic faith is faith that Christ instituted a divine institution, a Church blessed with authority to infallibly teach His public revelation. If we accept only doctrines consistent with our own experience we are not accepting them on faith but rather on human analysis and we are not being faithful. Faith is a gift of God given freely to us in baptism when we are marked as God s children, brothers of Christ and heirs to the kingdom. Faith asks us to believe all that God has revealed through Christ, our Lord and brother, and through his Holy Church. In Confirmation, the Holy Spirit enables us to grow in faithfulness. We are being faithful when we conform our will to God s will for us. Faithfulness are the works we do which make our faith come to life. We keep all the truth that has been revealed, we live it every moment of every day, we profess it at all times, we bear witness to it despite the obstacles and struggles that come our way and finally we spread the truth so that everyone may be saved. The faithful are devoted and committed to know, love and serve God s will. The prophet s call is a call to conversion, not to success. St. Paul preached the good news while chained in a Roman prison because he had no obstacle in himself. The first obstacle we have to overcome is our unconverted heart and our fear to suffer for the Gospel. St. Paul reminds us that we can lose faith. Faith is a gift. It s a relationship to a person, to Jesus. It s having trust in him, it s a commitment to him. And if you don t treat this friend well, if you neglect him, you may lose the friendship. Not from his side, but from our side. Therefore, the most important thing for the upcoming Year of Faith is to cultivate a true friendship with Jesus every day. The fact is that sometimes we have to live with situations that are objectively disordered, but we do so with the hope that the people are on the way of faith. We are a community of sinners who all need to improve our lives. We all have to take steps to be more completely conformed to the Lord s teachings. I have certainty that this person is on the way of the Christian life and is
conforming their life more and more to God s plan. I was clear with them about the Church s teaching when I spoke, but we need to have patience. People must trust that my decision in a specific circumstance in no way denies the church s teaching on an issue. Cardinal Schonborn of Vienna. How do we remain faithful despite the obstacles placed in our path by the devil? Here is a simple suggestion well known to members of AA: Just do the next Right thing. Don t let the size and scope of the challenge leave you overwhelmed and paralyzed. Just look at the present moment and what you can do in it. Do not worry about tomorrow, Jesus says. Don t get anxious over how you ll deal with this or that future challenge. Tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil. Matt 6:34 Finally, Rejoice! Your heavenly Father, who wants you with him for all eternity, will pour out his Spirit to help you throughout every endurance test. You will be given at that moment what your are to say and what your are to do. Step by step the Holy Spirit will help you cross that final finish line. Father, sustain in me a willing spirit so that I can endure to the end and be saved. Holy Spirit, come to my aid in every moment of this day and strengthen my faith and my faithfulness. IF YOUR PRAYER is truly effective, then, it should be teaching you to experience divine love as absolute and to rejoice in the divine love that others experience, regardless of their spiritual progress. Personal Meditation: How often do you envy others for their spiritual progress or look down on those who have made less progress in faith than you? The consequences of faithfulness are incalculable, for such a spirit can ripple out to touch the lives of those far removed from the original acts. Faithfulness is another virtue which sows the seeds that can only bear good fruit. We must go out and replace the pride, greed and lust of the world with our faithfulness. Remember, it is impossible to produce genuine Christ like Faithfulness by ourselves. A new converted and transformed heart is required. Then a growth process follows which can only take place as we submit to and obey the Holy Spirit. He nurtures those positive character changes that are reflected in our relationships. So let the Holy Spirit put off our old selves and put on the new and virtuous heart of love by growing in faithfulness to all God s revealed truth. GO MAD - Go Out and Make A Difference by being Faithfull in our actions with all our brothers and sisters.
Lesson Questions and Answers 1. Faithfulness is tied to perseverance and trust in God. At his passion, Jesus was the supreme example of faithfulness, both to his Father and toward us. Read about Jesus' agony in the Garden (Luke 22:39-44). How was Jesus able to persevere? Jesus persevered because he prayed continuously and fervently for the grace to do God s will rather than his own. God sent one of his angels to fortify him and let Him know that His prayers were heard and answered. Jesus was to do His will. We can pray all the time to know and do God s will. He sends us His Holy Spirit and a guardian angel to lead us to His will. 2. According to Proverbs 25:19, how would you describe the characteristics of someone who is not faithful? The unfaithful person is not trustworthy or steady. He will leave you in times of trouble. He will not do the right thing (justice) for the right reason (God s love and commandments). People who are unfaithful do not recognize the struggle between doing my will and God s will. 3. After reflecting on Luke 16:1-12, how can we prepare to be a faithful servant of Jesus, one who is entrusted with much for the Lord? We must not squander our faith and our gifts of time/talent/treasure. We will all have to give a full account of these freely given gifts. The rulers of the world reward/admire/respect those who act out of selfish prudence for their own sake. You will be known by your fruit- whether it is in small or large matters. If you can t be trusted with dishonest wealth, how can you be trusted with eternal life. If you aren t trustworthy with your brother s goods, why will he be expected to give you what you deserve? 4. St. Joseph is an excellent example of someone who possessed the Spirit's fruit of faithfulness. Read Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23. 'What characteristics of faithfulness do you see in these incidents? Joseph trusted in god s providential care and was obedient to following God s will as spoken by his messenger. God s angels always want to help us do God s will. We must listen to and obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit and our guardian angel. St. Joseph is an example of a man being a good provider to his family. 1. In what ways can Jesus be our source of faithfulness and move us to persevere faithfully as he did? See question 1. above. 2. As Christ s disciples, what must we do to be faithful? We must keep the faith Christ has revealed. We must live out the teaching of our faith. We must profess our faith at all times. We must bear witness to our faith at all times. We must follow Christ and the apostles in spreading the revealed faith to everyone.
3. What is the difference between Faith and being faithful? Faith is a gift of God given freely to us in baptism when we are marked as God s children, brothers of Christ and heirs to the kingdom. Faith asks us to believe all that God has revealed through Christ, our Lord and brother, and through his Holy Church. In Confirmation, the Holy Spirit enables us to grow in faithfulness. We are being faithful when we conform our will to God s will for us. Faithfulness are the works we do which make our faith come to life. We keep all the truth that has been revealed, we live it every moment of every day, we profess it at all times, we bear witness to it despite the obstacles and struggles that come our way and finally we spread the truth so that everyone may be saved. The faithful are devoted and committed to know, love and serve God s will. 4. How do you remain faithful in times of difficulty? How do we remain faithful despite the obstacles placed in our path by the devil? Here is a simple suggestion well know to members of AA: Just do the next Right thing. Don t let the size and scope of the challenge leave you overwhelmed and paralyzed. Just look at the present moment and what you can do in it. Do not worry about tomorrow, Jesus says. Don t get anxious over how you ll deal with this or that future challenge. Tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil. Matt 6:34 5. What do Mary s words to the stewards at Cana mean to us and our being faithful? Mary directed the servants to Do whatever He tells you. And Jesus transformed plain water into excellent wine. As the mother of Christ, the mother of his Church and the first and most perfect disciple of faith and faithfulness, Mary sets the example and wants us to do whatever he tells us. If we are faithful and obedient to God s will, we will be transformed from sinners and become saints in his kingdom both here on earth and in eternity.