Faith - The Light to Our Reason and Source of Our Joy

by Blessed John of Avila

The reasonableness of faith:  Since it is the duty of the creature to obey its Creator with all the power of its being, and since God is a Spirit, our principal acts of obedience will flow from that Spirit through which we are most like God. The two powers of the soul are the intellect and the will, and both should surrender themselves to God in self-sacrifice, the one by obeying the Divine Laws against its own inclinations and the other by belief in God's Word. If the intellect were only to assent to things discovered by itself there would be no question of obedience at all; it must assent to things which it does not itself see clearly. God's goodness demands love and His truth belief. Just as love requires that we should deny ourselves and pour ourselves out for the one we love, so God's very truth demands that, departing from our opinion, we should believe in His with even greater firmness.

The grace and the firmness of faith:  In spite of the fact that it is reasonable, faith is such a great thing that man is incapable of believing by his own powers, even though he had before his very eyes the evidence of miracles. Just as only God, through his Church, can command us to believe, so only He can give us the power to believe. The motives of credibility are not capable of giving to our faith that firmness which it possesses, because they cannot exclude an unreasonable doubt or scruple. But it is God who communicates to us such strength that man says to all the motives by which he has been led to believe, as the Samaritans said to the woman: "We believe now; we have heard Him for ourselves, and we recognise that He is indeed the Saviour of the world" (John 4:42).

Grace gives faith a special strength:  Because just as God raises man to a supernatural destiny, the vision of Himself face to face in Heaven, in like manner He is not content to have man believe as man only, that is through motives, miracles or reasons. Instead, raising him above himself, He gave him supernatural powers with which to believe, not doubtingly or in fear, as a man would, but with that certainty and security which befits the things of God. Just as the compass needle swings to the north and is held there, so God moves the intellect, by the faith which He infuses into it, to go straight to Him in firm assent, peacefully and with satisfaction. When this faith is perfect it brings with it a light through which, even though it does not permit a man to see that in which he believes, still it does enable him to see how worthy of belief are the things of God. Not only does he not feel sorrow at having to believe, but great joy; as happens in the case of every perfect virtue which acts with facility, firmness and joy.