Believing means entrusting oneself to a merciful love which always accepts and pardons, which sustains and directs our lives, and which shows its power by its ability to make straight the crooked lines of our history....
The self-awareness of the believer now expands because of the presence of another; it now lives in this other, and thus, in love, life takes on a whole new breadth. Here we see the Holy Spirit at work....
Faith transforms the whole person precisely to the extent that he or she becomes open to love
(from Lumen Fidei -- the Light of Faith, Pope Francis' first encyclical).
Pope Francis' encyclical Lumen Fidei, begun by Pope Benedict XVI, is a document that is best read in a group, in my opinion. The depth of thought and of truth is best appreciated from multiple perspectives, from a number of people who have experienced "the crooked lines of our history."
The ladies' Bible Study that I have been attending for several years now decided recently to begin reading Lumen Fidei. Although we have been studying the Bible and its commentaries for a long time together, our perspectives on "faith" were quite different when we began reading the encyclical. For some, "faith" simply meant believing what the Catholic church teaches; for others, "faith" meant trusting Jesus Christ in all aspects of life -- a personal encounter and on-going relationship that transforms our life.
One of the topics dealt with in the encyclical is that of "Faith and Reason." Most of us, of course, were not used to delving in such depth into the relationship between faith and reason, much less with the relationship between faith and truth. Reading the encyclical together allows us to stop and reflect together on our lives and experiences: How do we know truth? How do we know it is true? How do we embrace the truth?
One of the things we've discovered is the "miracle" of the first Christians in dialog with the Greek world, with its thirst for truth. The philosophical culture of the Greek world -- admired even by the non-philosophical Roman world -- created an ideal environment for the message of the Gospel. That balance of pagan philosophy, with its search for truth, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who proclaimed Himself as "The Truth" set up an interaction between faith and reason that has continued down the centuries to our day:
Religious man strives to see signs of God in the daily experiences of life, in the cycle of the seasons, in the fruitfulness of the earth, and in the movement of the cosmos. God is light and he can be found also by those who seek Him with a sincere heart (Lumen Fidei).
Pope Francis gives the example of the Magi, pagan astrologers "...who were led to Bethlehem by a star. For them, God's light appeared as a journey to be undertaken, a star which led them on a path to discovery.....Religious man is a wayfarer; he must be ready to let himself be led, to come out of himself, and to find the God of perpetual surprises....to the extent that they are sincerely open to love and set out with whatever light they can find, they are already, even without knowing it, on the path leading to faith....Anyone who sets off on the path of doing good to others is already drawing near to God, is already sustained by his help, for it is characteristic of the divine light to brighten our eyes whenever we walk toward the fullness of love."
The early Christian message was immediately embraced by both Jews and Greeks, by Roman centurians and by "pagan" philosophers and men of science. Not everyone accepted the message; many did turn away, but my point is that the dividing line was not a label -- Jew or Gentile, man or woman, Roman or pagan. The dividing line was those who were drawing near to God through love and goodness, and those who were wrapped up in their own egos.
Exploring these ideas together strengthens both our faith and our reason, as we understand through the stories of our lives shared in trust with one another. I am grateful for the experience of "faith seeking understanding" through the lives of many who are drawing near to God through multiple pathways.
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