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2. FAITH
CHRISTIAN
FAITH
CATHOLIC
CHRISTIAN
FAITH
“Believing in God.”
“Believing in the God
revealed by Jesus Christ.”
“Believing that Christ reveals
God to us in and through the
Catholic Church, the body of
Christ, united in the Holy Spirit.”
Faith is our personal response as “disciples of
Christ” of accepting him “as Lord and Savior.” “It
is our ‘Please come in!’ to Christ who stands at
the door and knocks (Rv 3:20)” (PCP II 64).

3. FAITH IN HUMAN RELATIONS:
•We show our faith when we accept the
words of others. (PANINIWALA)
•We show faith when we readily obey the
directions of those over us. (PAGSUNOD)
•We show our faith when we entrust our welfare to
others, even to strangers . (PAGTITIWALA)
It is impossible to live without faith!
Faith, as a human reality, is central
to our lives.

4. FAITH IN GOD:
•As our total response to God’s revelation: “It
is to know, to love, to follow Christ in the
Church he founded” (PCP II 36)
•As a Theological virtue: Faith is our personal
knowledge of God in Christ, expressed in
particular beliefs in specific truths by which
we adhere to Christ.
FAITH IS PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE OF
CHRIST, WHO IS OUR TRUTH.
FAITH IS OUR WHOLE LIFE IN CHRIST.

5. TOTAL AND ABSOLUTE
Already the Old Testament contrasted faith “in
man in whom there is no salvation” with faith in
“the Lord who made heaven and earth . . . who
shall reign forever” (cf. Ps 146:3,5-6,10; Jer
17:5-8).
Only Faith in God calls for a total and absolute
adherence (CCC 150).
Christ himself provides, especially in his
Passion, Death and Resurrection, the best
example of this total and absolute commitment
to God.

6. TRINITARIAN
For us Christians, Faith is our adherence to the
Triune God revealed through Jesus Christ our Lord.
It is our friendship with Christ and through Christ
with the Father, in their Holy Spirit.
Through Christ’s witness to his Father in his
teaching, preaching, miracles, and especially in his
Passion, Death and Resurrection, we come to
believe in Christ our Savior, in the Father, and in the
Holy Spirit sent into our hearts.
Our Faith as Catholics, then, consists in our
personal conviction and belief in God our Father,
revealed by Jesus Christ, His own divine Son-made-
man, and their presence to us through the Holy
Spirit, in the Church (PCP II 64; CCC 151-52).

7. LOVING, MATURING, AND MISSIONARY
Our Christian Faith is truly life-giving and
mature only through love, for “the man
without love has known nothing of God, for
God is love” (1 Jn 4:8).
And to be Christian, this love must be
inseparably love of God and love of
neighbor, like Christ’s.
It thus impels us to mission, to evangelize,
by bringing others the Good News (cf. 1
Cor 9:16).

8. LOVING, MATURING, AND MISSIONARY
Such a missionary spirit is the test of
authentic Faith because it is unthinkable
that a person should believe in Christ’s
Word and Kingdom without bearing
witness and proclaiming it in his turn (EN
24; PCP II 67-71, 402).
This means we are all called to share in
Christ’s own three-fold mission as priest,
prophet and king (cf. PCP II 116-21; LG 10-
13).

9. INFORMED AND COMMUNITARIAN
PCP II insists that Catholic Faith must be
“informed,” that is “believing Jesus’
words, and accepting his teachings,
trusting that he has “the words of eternal
life” (Jn 6:68; NCDP 147). It must be
“communitarian” since it is the Church
that transmits to us Christ’s revelation
through Sacred Scripture and its living
Tradition, and alone makes possible for
us an adequate faith-response (PCP II 65).

10. INCULTURATED
This Catholic faith in God and in Jesus Christ is never
separated from the typical Filipino faith in family and
friends.
On the one hand, we live out our faith in God precisely
in our daily relationships with family, friends, fellow
workers, etc.
On the other hand, each of these is radically affected by
our Catholic Faith in God our Father, in Jesus Christ His
only begotten Son, our Savior, and in their Holy Spirit
dwelling within us in grace.
“This is how all will know you for my disciples: your
love for one another” (Jn 13:35; cf. PCP II 72-73, 162,
202-11).

11. Vat. II explains this faith-response as follows: “by faith man
freely commits his entire self to God, ‘making the full submission
of his intellect and will to God who reveals,’ and willingly
asserting to the Revelation given by Him” (DV5).
Christian faith, then, touches every part of us: our minds
(believing), our wills (doing), our hearts (trusting)

12. MIND
HEART
WILL
What can I know?
What can I hope for?
What should I do?
We can know God as Our Father and Christ as
Our Lord. “Know that we belong to God . . .
that the Son of God has come and has given us
discernment to recognize the One who is true”
(1 Jn 5:19-20). Pagkilala sa Ama, sa Anak at sa
Espiritu Santo.
“Keep His commandments” (1 Jn 2:3), which
means to “love in deed and truth and not
merely talk about it” (1 Jn 3:18). This
demands acting on the credibility of God’s
teachings in Christ as true and dependable.
“Neither death nor life, neither angels nor
principalities, neither the present nor the
future, nor powers; neither height nor depth
nor any other creature, will be able to
separate us from the love of God that comes
to us in Christ Jesus, our Lord” (Rom 8:38-39)
DOCTRINE
MORALS
WORSHIP

13. Faith is knowing, but not mere “head knowledge” of some abstract
truths. It is like the deep knowledge we have of our parents, or of anyone
we love dearly. Christian Faith, is personal knowledge of Jesus Christ as
“my Lord and my God” (Jn 20:28). Christ solemnly assures each of us:
“Here I stand knocking at the door. If anyone hears me calling and opens
the door, I will enter his house, and have supper with him, and he with
me” (Rv 3:20).
Faith is a commitment to follow (obey) God’s will for us. This we see
exemplified in Mary’s “I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be done to me
as you say” (Lk 1:38). PCP II brings out this “doing” dimension of faith
as “witnessing” through “loving service” of our needy neighbors. In our
concrete situation, particularly urgent is the call for: 1) deeds of justice
and love; and 2) for protecting and caring for our endangered earth’s
environment (PCP II 78-80).
Faith is from the heart __ the loving, trusting, and hoping in the Lord that
comes from God’s own love flooding our hearts. This trusting Faith “lives
and grows through prayer and worship” __ personal heartfelt conversation
with God that is the opposite of mindless, mechanical repetition of
memorized formulas. Genuine personal prayer and group prayer find both
their inspirational source and summit of perfection in the Liturgy, the
Catholic community’s official public Trinitarian worship of the Father,
through Jesus Christ our Lord, in the Holy Spirit (cf. PCP II 74-77).

14. C. Faith and Three Classic
Questions
these three aspects of our Christian
Faith __ believing, doing, prayerful
trusting __ respond to the three
classical questions posed to every
person in life, and to St. Augustine’s
famous triple definition of faith.

15. 1. wHat can I know?
Christian faith responds that we can know
God as Our Father and Christ as Our Lord
(credere Deum/Christum).
“Know that we belong to God . . . that the
Son of God has come and has given us
discernment to recognize the One who is
true” (1 Jn 5:19-20).
Pagkilala sa Ama, sa Anak at sa Espiritu Santo.

16. 2. What should I do?
is answered by “Keep His
commandments” (1 Jn. 2:3), which means
to “love in deed and truth and not merely
talk about it” (1 Jn. 3:18).
This demands acting on the credibility of
God’s teachings in Christ as true and
dependable (credere Deo/Christo).

17. 3. What may we hope for?
Christian Faith celebrates in prayer and
sacrament the unshakeable hope that “neither
death nor life, neither angels nor principalities,
neither the present nor the future, nor powers;
neither height nor depth nor any other creature,
will be able to separate us from the love of God
that comes to us in Christ Jesus, our Lord”
(Rom 8:38-39).

18. In brief, this hope means to believe
in God “with your whole heart, with
your whole heart, with your whole
soul, and with all your mind” (Mt.
22:37), entrusting ourselves to Him
in love.

19. D. Faith and Salvation
Real faith is a force within us that by the
power of Christ’s Holy Spirit gradually
works a transformation in our daily
thoughts, hopes, attitudes and values.
Faith is necessary for salvation __ it is
the “beginning of our salvation” (Trent, ND
1935; CCC 161).

20. “without faith it is impossible to please
God” (Heb 11:6).
From experience we realize that faith
brings us fuller life which can be described
by three basic values: genuine personal
maturity, freedom and happiness.

21. Maturity
Faith is a growth in personal maturity because
it helps us “put childish ways aside” (1 Cor 13:11).
It develops a basic honesty in us before God
and man by making us aware of the sacrifices
demanded by authentic human love.
It grounds our own self-identity in the fact that
we are sons and daughters of the Father,
redeemed by the Blood of Christ our Savior,
and inspired by their indwelling Holy Spirit.

22. Freedom
Faith in Christ frees us from preferring “darkness
rather than light” (Jn 3:19), “the praise of men to
the glory of God” (Jn 12:43). Without faith in God,
we are at the mercy of “carnal allurements,
enticements for the eye, the life of empty show” so
that “the Father’s love has no place in us” (1 Jn
2:15-16).
As Scripture warns us: “the world with its seductions is
passing away, but the man who does God’s will endures
forever” (1 Jn 2:17).

23. Spiritual Joy
faith in Christ fosters the value of spiritual
joy. Mary proclaimed: “My soul proclaims
the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit
rejoices in God my Savior”
(Lk 1:46-47).
John the Baptist was “overjoyed” to hear
Christ’s voice __ “that is my joy, and it is
complete” (Jn 3:29).

24. Spiritual Joy
Christ himself taught his disciples “so that my joy
may be yours, and your joy may be complete”
(Jn.15:11), a “joy no one can take from you” (Jn
16:22).
Christian Faith is our response to Christ’s “Good
News,” lived in the Spirit whose fruits are “love, joy,
peace, patience, endurance, kindness, generosity,
faith, mildness and chastity” (Gal 5:22).

25. •certain enough to die for, yet a “mystery” because like
love, there is always more to understand;
•a free personal response to God, yet morally binding in
conscience;
•reasonable, yet beyond our natural ways of knowing;
•an individual act of our graced reason, yet also a life-
long process;
•a gift of God through both Revelation and interior
inspiration, yet something we do nobody can
“believe” for us;
•a personal individual response, yet only possible as a
member of the Christian community, the Church.

26. Faith in Jesus Christ:
•helps us to grow into adult persons who can relate
to others responsibly and maturely;
•liberates us from being enslaved by sin; and
•opens us to deep joy and happiness in the Lord.
Faith is something like the loving knowledge we
have of our family and friends. We are “sure” of
their love and we try to respond to them. Likewise,
through God’s Revelation in Christ, we are
absolutely sure of His love for us, and try to
respond through the gift of faith.

27. MARY: MODEL OF FAITH
Many Filipino Catholics probably learn more
about Faith from their devotion to the Virgin
Mary than any other way.
This is perfectly grounded in Scripture which
portrays Mary as the exemplar of faith.
Through her “Yes” at the Annunciation, Mary
“becomes the model of faith” (AMB 35; CCC
148).

28. Luke stresses the contrast between Mary’s
faith and the disbelief of Zachary by
Elizabeth’s greeting. “Blest is she who trusted
that Lord’s words to her would be fulfilled” (Lk
1:20,45).
John Paul II writes that “in the expression
‘Blest are you who believed’ we can rightly find
a kind of ‘key’ which unlocks for us the
innermost reality of Mary, whom the angel
hailed as ‘full of grace’ ” (RMa 19).

29. Mary is truly an effective inspiration to
us because she constantly exercised
faith in all the realities of ordinary,
daily living, even in family crises.
Luke’s account of the “finding in the
Temple” offers a perfect example (cf.
Lk 2:41-52).

30. There is the There is the first stage first stage of astonishment at of astonishment at
seeing Jesus in the temple, in the midst of seeing Jesus in the temple, in the midst of
the teachers. Astonishment is often the the teachers. Astonishment is often the
beginning of faith, the sign and condition beginning of faith, the sign and condition
to break beyond our “mind-set” and learn to break beyond our “mind-set” and learn
something new. something new.
Mary and Joseph learned something from Mary and Joseph learned something from
Jesus that day. Jesus that day.

31. Second, there is distress and
worry, real anguish and suffering.
As with the prophets, God’s
Word brings good and bad fortune.
Mary was already “taking up the
Cross” of the disciple of Christ.

32. Third, there is often a lack of
understanding.
Both Mary and Joseph, and later “the
Twelve,” could not understand what Jesus
meant.
Faith is not “clear insight” but “seeing
indistinctly, as in a mirror”
(1 Cor 13:12)

33. fourth stage of search wherein Mary did not drop the
incident from her mind, but rather “kept all these things
in her heart.”
Faith is a continual search for meaning, for making
sense of what is happening by uncovering what links
them together.
Like the “scribe who is learned in the reign of God” Mary
acted like “the head of a household who brings from his
storeroom both the new and the old” (Mt 13:52).

34. Since faith is the key to Mary’s
whole life, from her divine
motherhood to her “falling asleep in
the Lord,” her life is a real
“pilgrimage of faith” (LG 58).
That makes her our model and
support in faith.

35. INTEGRATION INTEGRATION
Faith is a reality touching our whole selves __ our Faith is a reality touching our whole selves __ our
minds (convictions), our hands and will (committed minds (convictions), our hands and will (committed
action) and our hearts (trust). action) and our hearts (trust).
The objective aspects of Christian faith, exemplified The objective aspects of Christian faith, exemplified
in doctrine (the Creed), morals (the Commandments) in doctrine (the Creed), morals (the Commandments)
and worship (the Sacraments), also manifest faith as and worship (the Sacraments), also manifest faith as
an integral whole. an integral whole.
..

36. INTEGRATION INTEGRATION
Christian Faith, is not something Christian Faith, is not something
fragmented. fragmented.
It is a living way of life that integrates our It is a living way of life that integrates our
minds, wills, and hearts with its doctrine, minds, wills, and hearts with its doctrine,
morals, and worship, within a sustaining morals, and worship, within a sustaining
community of fellow disciples of Christ.community of fellow disciples of Christ.

37. CATHOLIC BISHOPS’ CONFERENCE OF
THE PHILIPPINES ECCCE
CHAPTER 3
OUR RESPONSE: WE BELIEVE