December 3rd, 2008

Life is Still Worth Living, Ep 24, The Virtue of Faith

This week on Life is Still Worth Living – The Virtue of Faith.

Two Quotations

First, From the Baltimore Catechism, no. 22

Faith is the virtue by which we firmly believe all the truths God has revealed, on the word of God revealing them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived.

And from The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 28

Faith is the supernatural virtue which is necessary for salvation. It is a free gift of God and is accessible to all who humbly seek it. The act of faith is a human act, that is, an act of the intellect of a person – prompted by the will moved by God – who freely assents to divine truth. Faith is also certain because it is founded on the Word of God; it works “through charity” (Galatians 5:6); and it continually grows through listening to the Word of God and through prayer. It is, even now, a foretaste of the joys of heaven.

Music: Friction Bailey

Fr. Ryan | Posted in Life is Still Worth Living | 2 Comments »

  • Joe

    – ok — “requires us not to be nice to each other” would you clarify and give an example of this ?

  • http://fatherryan.tumblr.com Fr. Ryan

    Sure Joe.
    Please note that I don’t mean to imply that meanness is always the answer or that it is regularly necessary. I mean primarily to imply that it is needed from time to time… I may have misspoken a little.

    Here’s the reasoning.

    1. If I believe in the Catholic faith, then I believe in the necessity of that faith (Specifically the sacraments) for everyone else.
    2. The purpose of the Christian life is the salvation of my own and the salvation of other souls.
    3. Thus, Christian love is directly ordered to the salvation of souls.

    So my point is that love is not always synonymous with niceness. If someone is in sin, then I am required by Christian love (and the 3rd Spiritual Work of Mercy) to correct and admonish them. Sometimes that requires harshness or even apparent meanness… Not always.

    So, for example, a friend gets involved with Drugs. I may try niceness. Failing that, I may try harsher methods. Failing that, I may turn to an intervention. Failing that, I may simply refuse to be near them until they clean them up.

    I do have to apologize that this episode was recorded while I was a little sick and I didn’t use a complete script – only about 65% was read from my screen (usually it’s about 95%). So I do apologize if I implied the necessity of harshness.

    Thanks for the question Joe!
    Fr. R