CHURCH
Year of Faith

ESSENTIAL
FOR LIVING
On November 24th, Pope Francis closes the extraordinary Year of Faith initiated by Benedict XVI in order to rediscover the “vital importance” of faith and witness for the world. In these pages, we retrace its central words and moments.

BENEDICT XVI:
THE JOY TO BELIEVE

Many people wonder: Is God just a hypothesis or not? Is He a reality or not? Why do we not hear Him? “Gospel” means: God has broken His silence, God has spoken, God exists. This fact in itself is salvation: God knows us, God loves us, He has entered into history. Jesus is His Word, God with us, God showing us that He loves us, that He suffers with us until death and rises again. This is the Gospel. God has spoken, He is no longer the great unknown, but has shown Himself and this is salvation. The question for us is this: God has spoken, He has truly broken the great silence, He has shown Himself, but how can we communicate this reality to the people of today, so that it becomes salvation? In itself, the fact that He has spoken is salvation, it is redemption. But how can man know this? ...Only God’s precedence makes our journey possible, our cooperation, which is always cooperation, and not entirely our own decision. Therefore, it is important always to know that the first word, the true initiative, the true activity comes from God and only by inserting ourselves into the divine initiative, only by begging for this divine initiative, shall we too be able to become–with Him and in Him–evangelizers. God is always the beginning, and it is always only He who can make Pentecost, who can create the Church, who can show the reality of His being with us.
(Synod of Bishops, October 8, 2012)

If today the Church proposes a new Year of Faith and a new evangelization, it is not to honor an anniversary, but because there is more need of it, even more than there was 50 years ago! ...But it is in starting from the experience of this desert, from this void, that we can again discover the joy of believing, its vital importance for us, men and women. In the desert we rediscover the value of what is essential for living; thus in today’s world there are innumerable signs, often expressed implicitly or negatively, of the thirst for God, for the ultimate meaning of life. And in the desert people of faith are needed who, with their own lives, point out the way to the Promised Land and keep hope alive. Living faith opens the heart to the grace of God which frees us from pessimism. Today, more than ever, evangelizing means witnessing to the new life, transformed by God, and thus showing the path.
(Homily for the Opening of the Year of the Faith, October 11, 2012)

We are in the Year of Faith which I desired precisely to reaffirm our faith in God in a context which seems to push Him more and more into the background. I should like to invite all of us to renew our firm confidence in the Lord, to entrust ourselves like children in God’s arms, certain that those arms always hold us, enabling us to press forward each day, even when the going is rough. I want everyone to feel loved by that God who gave His Son for us and who has shown us His infinite love. I want everyone to feel the joy of being a Christian. In one beautiful morning prayer, it says: “I adore You, my God, and I love You with all my heart. I thank You for having created me and made me a Christian....” Yes, we are happy for the gift of faith; it is our most precious possession, which no one can take from us! Let us thank the Lord for this daily, in prayer and by a consistent Christian life. God loves us, but He also expects us to love Him!
(Audience, February 27, 2013)

Caritas Christi urget nos” (2 Cor 5:14): it is the love of Christ that fills our hearts and impels us to evangelize. Today as in the past, He sends us through the highways of the world to proclaim His Gospel to all the peoples of the earth (cf. Mt 28:19). Through His love, Jesus Christ attracts to Himself the people of every generation: in every age He convokes the Church, entrusting her with the proclamation of the Gospel by a mandate that is ever new. Today too, there is a need for stronger ecclesial commitment to new evangelization in order to rediscover the joy of believing and the enthusiasm for communicating the faith.… Only through believing, then, does faith grow and become stronger; there is no other possibility for possessing certitude with regard to one’s life apart from self-abandonment, in a continuous crescendo, into the hands of a love that seems to grow constantly because it has its origin in God.... A Christian may never think of belief as a private act. Faith is choosing to stand with the Lord so as to live with Him. This “standing with Him” points towards an understanding of the reasons for believing. Faith, precisely because it is a free act, also demands social responsibility for what one believes. The Church on the day of Pentecost demonstrates with utter clarity this public dimension of believing and proclaiming one’s faith fearlessly to every person. It is the gift of the Holy Spirit that makes us fit for mission and strengthens our witness, making it frank and courageous.
Profession of faith is an act both personal and communitarian. It is the Church that is the primary subject of faith.
(From the Apostolic Letter, Porta Fidei)

FRANCIS: IT IS HE WHO GIVES YOU THE FAITH
We say we must seek God, go to Him and ask forgiveness, but when we go, He is waiting for us, He is there first! In Spanish, we have a word that explains this well: primerear–the Lord always gets there before us, He gets there first, He is waiting for us! To find someone waiting for you is truly a great grace. You go to Him as a sinner, but He is waiting to forgive you. This is the experience that the Prophets of Israel describe, comparing the Lord to the almond blossom, the first flower of spring (cf. Jer 1:11-12). Before any other flowers appear, He is there, waiting. The Lord is waiting for us. Moreover, when we seek Him, we discover that He is waiting to welcome us, to offer us His love. And this fills your heart with such wonder that you can hardly believe it, and this is how your faith grows–through an encounter with a Person, through an encounter with the Lord. Some people will say, “No, I prefer to read about faith in books!” It is important to read about faith, but look, on its own this is not enough! What is important is our encounter with Jesus, our encounter with Him, and this is what gives you faith because He is the one who gives it to you!
You were also talking about the fragility of faith, about how to overcome it. The worst enemy of a fragile faith–curious, isn’t it?–is fear. Do not be afraid! We are frail and we know it, but He is stronger! If you walk with Him there is no problem! A child is very frail–I have seen many children today–but if they’re with their father, with their mother, they are safe. With the Lord, we are safe. Faith grows with the Lord, from the very hand of the Lord; this helps us grow and makes us strong. However, if we think we can manage on our own....
(Vigil of Pentecost with Ecclesial Movements, May 18, 2013)

The light of Christ shines, as in a mirror, upon the face of Christians; as it spreads, it comes down to us, so that we too can share in that vision and reflect that light to others, in the same way that, in the Easter liturgy, the light of the paschal candle lights countless other candles. Faith is passed on, we might say, by contact, from one person to another, just as one candle is lighted from another. Christians, in their poverty, plant a seed so rich that it becomes a great tree, capable of filling the world with its fruit.
The transmission of the faith not only brings light to men and women in every place; it travels through time, passing from one generation to another. Because faith is born of an encounter which takes place in history and lights up our journey through time, it must be passed on in every age. It is through an unbroken chain of witnesses that we come to see the face of Jesus. But how is this possible? How can we be certain, after all these centuries, that we have encountered the “real Jesus”? Were we merely isolated individuals, were our starting point simply our own individual ego seeking in itself the basis of absolutely sure knowledge, a certainty of this sort would be impossible. I cannot possibly verify for myself something which happened so long ago. But this is not the only way we attain knowledge. Persons always live in relationship. We come from others, we belong to others, and our lives are enlarged by our encounter with others. Even our own knowledge and self-awareness are relational; they are linked to others who have gone before us: in the first place, our parents, who gave us our life and our name. Language itself, the words by which we make sense of our lives and the world around us, comes to us from others, preserved in the living memory of others. Self-knowledge is only possible when we share in a greater memory. The same thing holds true for faith, which brings human understanding to its fullness. Faith’s past, that act of Jesus’ love which brought new life to the world, comes down to us through the memory of others–witnesses–and is kept alive in that one remembering subject which is the Church. The Church is a Mother who teaches us to speak the language of faith.
 (Lumen Fidei, 37,38)

I have neither silver nor gold, but I bring with me the most precious thing given to me: Jesus Christ! … Christ offers them space, knowing that there is no force more powerful than the one released from the hearts of young people when they have been conquered by the experience of friendship with Him. Christ has confidence in young people and entrusts them with the very future of His mission, “Go and make disciples” ….And young people have confidence in Christ: they are not afraid to risk for Him the only life they have, because they know they will not be disappointed.
(World Youth Day, Rio de Janeiro, July 22, 2013)

But what took place most singularly in the Virgin Mary also takes place within us, spiritually, when we receive the word of God with a good and sincere heart and put it into practice. It is as if God takes flesh within us; He comes to dwell in us, for He dwells in all who love Him and keep His word. It is not easy to understand this, but really, it is easy to feel it in our heart.
Do we think that Jesus’ incarnation is simply a past event which has nothing to do with us personally? Believing in Jesus means giving Him our flesh with the humility and courage of Mary, so that He can continue to dwell in our midst. It means giving Him our hands, to caress the little ones and the poor; our feet, to go forth and meet our brothers and sisters; our arms, to hold up the weak and to work in the Lord’s vineyard; our minds, to think and act in the light of the Gospel; and especially to offer our hearts to love and to make choices in accordance with God’s will. All this happens thanks to the working of the Holy Spirit. And in this way we become instruments in God’s hands, so that Jesus can act in the world through us.
(Prayer for the Marian Day, St. Peter’s Square, October 12, 2013)