“…for we walk by faith, not by sight.” – 2 Corinthians 5:7
What would you do if you needed to find a new doctor? Would you go online and investigate the profiles of the physicians at your local clinic? If so, would you read the reviews from previous patients? More likely than not, you would ask your family and friends about their doctors and whom they might recommend.
We tend to seek the advice of others when it comes to choosing anything from a simple restaurant or movie to the more important services of a health care provider. In fact, most everything that we know, we have learned from someone else – parents, teachers, authors, news reporters, and bloggers.
We get knowledge from people we trust. It is an efficient and intelligent mode of operating, without which progress would be impossible. In other words, we “walk by faith” in other people on a daily basis. That is why the secular world is simply wrong when it caricatures faith as a foolish quality for mindless sheep.
Indeed, the same logic of faith-knowledge applies to religion. If we know and follow Christ, it is because someone we trust has introduced us to Him, just as they were introduced to Him by a person they trusted. In this way the heritage of the Christian faith is traced all the way back to the preaching of the Apostles and to Christ, the Word of God Himself, who said, “Follow me.”
Thus, as Pope Francis says, “Faith is linked to hearing. Abraham does not see God, but hears his voice. Faith thus takes on a personal aspect… [It] is our response to a word which engages us personally, to a ‘Thou’ who calls us by name.” (Lumen Fidei, 8)
Usually, this Voice beckons us out into uncharted territory, just like He did to Abraham and the Apostles. He draws us beyond the comfortable, little kingdoms we build for ourselves and pulls us into His presence, where He alone can be King. Again, Pope Francis explains how this relates to the essence of faith:
Faith by its very nature demands renouncing the immediate possession which sight would appear to offer; it is an invitation to turn to the source of the light, while respecting the mystery of a countenance which will unveil itself personally in its own good time. (Lumen Fidei, 13)
Trusting therefore in our faithful God, let us follow His Voice, confident that He will meet us on the horizon. Let us go to the peripheries and extend a hand to those who are strangers. For, in their eyes we can catch a glimpse of Him Who dwells in unapproachable Light.
Heavenly Father, increase our faith, that we might follow Your call and come to see Your Face, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
