“Crisis of Faith” are words we have often heard before. We, usually, don’t mind it. But sometime around 1980 I read about it again in a book, “Ratzinger Report” and read it more seriously this time. The book was authored by the present Pope when he was younger and a cardinal. And he used those words to describe the state of the Church!!! That was a serious statement if we understand what Faith is.
The above statement would mean: nobody is entering the Catholic Church, nobody is going to heaven, nobody knows God and/or Christ, nobody knows the truth…….in short many are going to hell. St. Paul mentioned something to that effect that everything outside of Faith is sin, i.e. if one has no faith he is in the state of sin and everything he does is sin because he does not have the element of goodness that comes with faith. Let us look at the elements of Faith and see what is lacking that is causing the crisis of faith.
The first element of faith is that (1) it is an act of the intellect (2)thinking of its formal goal, God, (3) and the means that lead to that goal (4) as dictated by that final goal, God.
As early as the 1800, thinkers like Belloc and Chesterton had noticed that mankind has ceased to think. He is moved not by his rationality but by his animality. ‘That is an emotional moment” had been a common description of great events. In a recent earthquake they spent 2 minutes of silence for the quake victims and described that moment as a very emotional moment. But if I use my head I should ask “what good can two minutes of silence do for those who died?” Essentially nothing. So why do it. People who do emotional things will have difficulty in making an act of faith which is an act of the intellect. The No 1 element of faith is very rare today.
Number 2 is to think of its formal goal which is God. The image of God as its goal must be the true God. Otherwise the proposition on who is God will not elicit an assent of the mind. We can know the God of nature from the firmaments of heaven. This needs thinking with the intellect. And we can know enough to know the God of nature. But God is supernatural and our intellect needs grace to know things supernatural. With the aid of grace we should know the nature of God, His attributes, etc. The more we know about God the greater the intensity of our act of Faith. But the Pelagian heresy had devastated the Church before and until now. Seminarians only use their natural knowledge in studying theology and are unable to recognize the supernatural God. Many had graduated and become priest without having a personal encounter with God. This reflects in their preaching. They never met the person they preach.
Number 3. We must know the means to attain that goal. Aside from knowing His nature and attributes, to know God means knowing what He loves and what He hates which are enumerated in the commandments of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. This is the reason why Christ, in the Apostolic Commission to his apostles commanded them to teach: “ALL My commandments and HOW to observe them.” These are the proposition that are the material object of Faith that make up both Moral and Dogmatic Theology. Many know SOME of the commands and most modify the HOW. This is disobedience to the command of God who said: “If you love me keep My commandments.” The commandments are the means to the end. We were warned not to add or subtract from them.
Number 4. The proposition or truths divinely revealed by God must be studied with the desire to lead as to God. The propositions that leads to the object of faith must be clearly shown as coming from God and its interpretation must be convincingly from God. Sadly Theology is studied for selfish or natural reason like to pass the test, to get a degree or the more ambitions desire to be a bishop (a desire St. Thomas describes as a sin). The object of Faith which is love of God is often absent.
As we grow gradually through the four steps we must come to a point where the intellect must assent to the truths it has learned. It cannot have an effective assent if the truths are incomplete or incorrect. The intellect can only assent to convincing truths.
Another element of faith is that Faith, as an act of the intellect thinks about general, abstract concepts. And the intellect’s assent to these general, abstract concepts must be with the consent of the free will because no part of the person can act without the approval or go signal of the free will. Before an act of faith is made there must be an assent of the intellect to the proposition proposed and the consent of the free will to the propositions assented to by the intellect. It can happen that the intellect may assent to the propositional truth of faith, but the free will can withhold its consent. This is an incomplete act and therefore, there is no faith yet.
The free will, on the other hand, is more attracted to the specific, particular, and emotional desires of the flesh. And presented with these 2 alternatives, the desires of the body and the desire of the intellect, the free will can refuse to consent to the general and abstract truths already assented to by the intellect and consent instead to the specific worldly desires of the flesh. Without this consent of the free will the intellect cannot make that act upon which it had already assented to needed to make an act of faith.
For the intellect to be able to assent to a proposition or statement of truth, the proposition must be clear, believable and devoid of contradiction. Though ALL propositions of the Catholic faith are clear and believable in themselves, it is not so when explained by preachers. And so the intellect cannot give its assent due to lack of believable facts in the proposition.
The assent given by the intellect to a doctrinal proposition is difficult enough to make due to the indolence of the modern generation to think. Add to this the difficulty in thinking because of the enormous amount of external stimuli that hinders thinking and the poor presentation of Catholic doctrinal truths in the form of propositions. But let us suppose that all those requirements are fulfilled, the intellect still cannot make an act of faith without the free will consenting to what the intellect have assented to.
The free will can reject whatever assent made by the intellect on any proposition for no reason at all. The free will is FREE. A very solid argument can aid the free will in giving its consent but not always. No amount of proof that smoking is hazardous to your health can convince the free will to stop smoking as has been happening now.
How come the smoker cannot believe that smoking is dangerous to his health? Most often it is because his intellect knows the medical facts but has not assented to that truth. Many people are like that; they are thinking but they are not assenting to what they know. Their knowledge is lip service not conviction. But if the smoker’s intellect assents to the facts on smoking, that assent can not necessarily get the free will to give its consent.
The free will is the faculty that tells the intellect, your assent to the proposition is good. I will give my consent Go and believe in it. The free will commands the intellect to act. And when the intellect acts and believes in the proposition at the promptings of the free will THAT IS AN ACT OF FAITH!
Frankly, how many souls have gone through this process that constitutes the act of faith keeping in mind that the intellect has to go through this process in believing all the doctrines of the Catholic Church. Or let’s say just the “apostles creed.”
Let’s take just one example of a proposition: “I believe in God the Father almighty creator of heaven and earth.”
The intellect is presented with this proposition. That there is a God. He is Almighty. He created heaven and earth and, therefore, all things created belong to Him.
This truth is simple and obvious we need no further proofs to make it believable…….just to simplify the demonstration. This truth is naturally simple and obvious that it is easy for the intellect to make an assent to. And so the intellect does so. Here the free will must consent to what the intellect assented to. Being an obvious truth it should not be difficult for the free will to give its consent. Let’s say the free will gives its consent and gives the intellect the ‘go’ signal “go ahead and believe in that proposition.” So, with the approval of the free will the intellect goes into action and commands the free will (which is the driving force of the soul) to put into action the act of believing. We can only know if the whole process of believing has been accomplished if the person actually treats everything in the world as owned by God and should be used according to the will of God. He is acting with faith.
If a person uses anything as if he owns it, he is acting without faith. And without faith no one can be pleasing to God. In the 1980’s Cardinal Ratzinger noted that the world was undergoing a crisis of faith. In such a crisis, the world can only go down, down, down which no one can stop, which the present Pope noted in his Dec. 20 address. This explains everything that is going on now.