Where Does Faith Come From?

 As a child, I learned that faith, hope, and charity were theological virtues -- that is, they came from God to draw us back to God.  They were gifts; we were not able, I learned, to give ourselves these gifts.

As an adult, I would often hear sermons about how important it is to have faith in God --- only no one ever said how we are supposed to "get" faith.  I guess maybe someone must have said to ask God for the gift of faith, but if you don't already have some degree of faith, it is hard to believe that God will give you what you are asking for.  

Reflecting on Father Ken's homily posted yesterday, I realized that he was saying, "If you want to "believe" in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, look to your experience rather than to your doctrine.  Not that doctrine is not important -- it certainly is, but our doctrine, or belief, begins in experience first, and only then moves to reflection on our experience, and finally to a statement of belief:  "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!"

Karl Rahner, the greatest theologian of the 20th century, maintained that every person has experienced God.  When countered with someone's denial, he would say, "O yes.  You have experienced Him!"  And looking back at the Bible, our source of belief/ doctrine, I realize that in every case, faith emerged from experience.  From Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; from the history of Israel, from the prophets, from those who encountered Jesus Christ, first there was an experience ---  and only afterwards, "faith."  

Anyone who reads the Bible through these lenses will see where faith comes from -- first, God takes the initiative in someone's life, and then.....we believe.  We believe because we have seen and heard for ourselves that God is present and active in our lives.  God is no respecter of persons.  If He acted in Abraham's life, in Peter's life, He must also act in our lives.

Ask anyone who believes, really believes in God, why he/she believes.  In many cases, someone has told of his/her own experience, and that story leads the person to turn to God, hesitantly at first and without faith -- but then, they come to believe because of their own encounter with the Living God.  But there is always the story, the experience, that leads to belief.

When, where, how were you first touched by the Holy Spirit?  When did you experience the Fatherhood of God, the compassion of the Christ, the love of the Holy Spirit?  When did you first "see" the hand of God in your own life?  Why do YOU believe?

I used to tell my Confirmation students, 11th graders who were trying to decide on a college or a career after high school, to consult not only college brochures, but their own interior experience of the college as they visited the campus.  In other words, to trust their experience as the leading of God in their lives. We have to learn what peace of mind, body, and soul feels like, and to trust our own experience of that peace as God's action in our lives.  As we trust, and then walk, in that experience, we begin to discover God's leading.  And we begin to believe that He will lead us to the next step.

Even as a young child, I used to experience a kind of peace whenever I went into an empty church during recess or after school.  I experienced a kind of Presence there that I came to trust.  The first time I visited the site of the high school I eventually attended, I felt that Peace and that Presence, and I knew that I belonged on that campus.

If we look at our lives for the times we experienced peace, true comfort, Presence, truth (in the case of St. Augustine, for example), we will find God -- and we will begin to believe!