The Year of Faith has begun! Pope Benedict XVI declared a Year of Faith from October 11, 2012 through November 24, 2013. In this Year of Faith, Catholics are asked to deepen their commitment to Christ, grow in their faith and learn to share their faith with confidence and hope. The main focus of the Year of Faith is to re-introduce, re-energize and renew people's Catholic faith. The Creed, the statement of what we profess to believe and which we recite at every Sunday Mass, therefore, will play a significant role. “It is by believing with the heart that you are justified, and by making the declaration with your lips that you are saved. May the year of faith lead all believers to learn by heart the creed and to say it every day as a prayer, so that the breathing agrees with the faith” (From the Pastoral Aid for the Year of Faith).
The main ecclesial event at the beginning of the Year of Faith will be the XIII General Assembly of the Ordinary Synod of Bishops, convoked by Pope Benedict XVI, dedicated to The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith. On October 11, there was a solemn celebration of the beginning of the Year of Faith, in remembrance of the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council.
In reading Porta Fidei, the Pope's document introducing the Year of Faith, I felt his call to "rediscover the joy of believing” (Porta Fidei (PF), 7). I love that to rediscover faith means to rediscover joy! We are called upon to be new in ardor, new in commitment and new in our approaches while remaining faithful to the uncompromising truth of the Gospel. Faith “is the lifelong companion that makes it possible to perceive, ever anew, the marvels that God works for us…faith commits every one of us to become a living sign of the presence of the Risen Lord in the world.” (PF, 15). Furthermore, “the ‘door of faith’ (Acts 14:27) is always open for us…To enter through that door is to set out on a journey that lasts a lifetime. It begins with baptism (cf. Rom 6:4), through which we can address God as Father, and it ends with the passage through death to eternal life, fruit of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus” (PF, 1). How can we fail to rediscover joy, knowing that the journey of faith ends with eternal life?!
Though our culture is certainly changing, people still have the same need for God and the need to rediscover joy! “We cannot accept that salt should become tasteless or the light be kept hidden (cf. Mt 5:13-16). The people of today can still experience the need to go to the well, like the Samaritan woman, in order to hear Jesus, who invites us to believe in him and to draw upon the source of living water welling up within him (cf. Jn 4:14)” (PF, 3). Faith is a gift, and it is God’s grace that initiates and perfects our faith. “During this time we will need to keep our gaze fixed upon Jesus Christ, the ‘pioneer and perfecter of our faith’ (Heb 12:2): in him, all the anguish and all the longing of the human heart finds fulfillment. The joy of love, the answer to the drama of suffering and pain, the power of forgiveness in the face of an offence received and the victory of life over the emptiness of death: all this finds fulfillment in the mystery of his Incarnation, in his becoming man, in his sharing our human weakness so as to transform it by the power of his resurrection” (PF, 13).
Reflecting on what the Year of Faith means for me personally, I am excited to rediscover joy in the gift of my faith and in the gift of my vocation. The Pope said that, “By faith, men and women have consecrated their lives to Christ, leaving all things behind so as to live obedience, poverty and chastity with Gospel simplicity, concrete signs of waiting for the Lord who comes without delay” (PF, 13). The Lord daily re-confirms the call that He has placed on my heart to consecrate myself to Him through Religious Life and to love the world through this way of life. My vocation answers the question of how I am called to give and to receive love, and how I can best love. The call to Religious Life is not a call to give up love, but it is a call answered in love and out of love. The reason I can say yes to this call, to this sacrifice, to the beauty of this way of life is because I have fallen in love and know that in choosing to follow Jesus, poor, chaste and humble, I will find true joy and fulfillment. There is a great part in the end of the movie “Soul Surfer” where Bethany Hamilton, who lost her arm in a shark attack while surfing, says that she found she could embrace the world better with one arm, than she ever could have with two arms. I feel the same way in my vocation. Because of His grace and His will, I can love the world and people better by giving up the goods of marriage and family life for a different kind of love. Religious life will free me for service and allow me to love all people in a unique holy and wholesome way.
We are all made for love. We long for it, to give it and to receive it. Asking ourselves how we are called to love and how we can love best is an important question because just as great as the world’s need is to receive love, is our need to give it. In each vocation there are sacrifices to be made, and giving your heart to anyone or anything is itself an act of faith involving vulnerability. C. S. Lewis, in his book The Four Loves, says, "To love at all is to become vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safely in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket-safe, dark, motionless, airless space, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell." Vulnerability is a part of love and a part of faith. The world may let me down; people may let me down; it may seem like I’m losing; but Jesus will always make my heart whole, and I trust Him. True love and true faith are not based on feelings or popular opinion, but they are active choices of our will. Mother Teresa said, “I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.” The same can be said of faith. .
Stepping out in faith to love as the Lord calls me to love, I know I have nothing to fear. Suffering and heartache will certainly come, but as St. Peter says, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Without having seen him you love him; though you do not now see him you believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy. As the outcome of your faith you obtain the salvation of your souls” (1 Pet 1:6-9). Faith, hope and love do not disappoint. You may not get exactly what you plan for, but you will always receive more JOY than you can understand or imagine!
“Let us entrust this time of grace to the Mother of God, proclaimed ‘blessed because she believed’ (Lk 1:45)” (PF, 15), and profess with our lips and our hearts the faith we have received:
I believe in one God, the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
he suffered death and was buried,
and rose again on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures.
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead
and his kingdom will have no end.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
I believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.
I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins
and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come.
Amen.
Written by Kristen
