1. Faith described.
Faith is what enables man to know what is right in the natural level. But more so, it enables man to know what is right in the supernatural or spiritual level. It prevents man from choosing what is wrong in both levels.
Faith is a gift from God. No amount of training and study can make man know what is right; Philosophy can help a little in the natural level but philosophers can still make a lot of mistakes. But when it comes to the supernatural or spiritual level, knowing what is right is completely dependent on the grace of Faith.
All the teachings of Jesus Christ in the New Testament are in the spiritual or supernatural level. So His teachings that make up the doctrines of the Catholic Church cannot be known except through the supernatural virtue of Faith. Again, these teachings cannot be learned in the seminary, nor in theological schools, nor in books….or anywhere. It is infused knowledge that can only come with the theological virtue of Faith. The main defect in all seminaries and theological schools is that men are trying to teach men the truths in the natural level through books. This is ‘inutil.’ That is why we have been producing priests that know nothing (neither natural nor supernatural knowledge) since the 18th hundreds. And most of them are either dead or bishops, cardinals and even popes.
2. Faith is a gift for the repentant.
The grace of Faith is a gift from God and is given to all who are truly repentant (as defined by Christ.) Repentance consist in a.) knowing your sins as disobedience to God’s commands. b.) sorrow for having disobeyed the commands of God. c.) purpose never again to disobey the commands of God. d.) and making up for this disobedience by being faithfully obedient to God’s commands.
Unless these four steps are done well, the grace of Faith will never be given. The ‘mercy of God’ is shown only to the repentant; without repentance God will show justice. This is why the main message of Christ is ‘Repent, believe.’ Faith comes only after repentance. And the Blessed Virgin’s message had always been ‘repent.’
3. With repentance, comes Faith, Hope and Charity.
With repentance, whose three activities according to St. Augustine, are prayer, fasting and good works, ….God gives the soul the three theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity. These are supernatural gifts that can come from God alone. The three virtues always go hand in hand. Charity, which is love of God and neighbour is built on Faith and Hope. Anyone who shows charity definitely has Faith and Hope. To receive the grace of Charity from God is the dream of every Catholics. It is the sign of predestination.
4. Faith without Charity is dead.
He who is uncharitable loses his virtue of Charity and kills his Faith, thus ‘dead Faith.’ To have a dead Faith is to lose all the three theological virtues. To bring that dead Faith back to live, one has to go through repentance once again. This rebirth in Faith, to be born again, is the monastic experience. This is the goal of monasticism from the beginning of christendom. ‘To be born again’ has no other meaning in christendom than to live the monastic life…….during the rest of one’s life!
The possibility of losing one’s Faith is great, so the apostles saw the need to increase their Faith to avoid losing it. The Gospel narrates; ‘the apostles approached Christ and asked Him, ‘Lord, increase our Faith.”
To increase one’s Faith, you must, first, already have that Faith otherwise there is nothing to increase.
5. First, have Faith. Then, increase that Faith.
Christ gave the example of servants of a master. First, the servants were plowing and herding. Then upon reaching home, they continued to work serving their master at table while he ate and drank.
Christ taught them that their attitude must be; ‘I am just a servant and I have just done my duty.’
The servant plowing and herding is the symbol of servants attaining Faith. ‘Plowing and herding’ means working to repent for one’s sins and learning the commands of Christ.’ This is the more difficult human aspect of the work of salvation. It is like working hard under the sun. This is how Faith is attained from God.
Then, the servants returned home after their arduous work. Usually, workers would like to eat, clean up and rest after a days hard work. This returning home is a symbol of entering into the inner recesses of the Catholic Church. It is entering into the life of contemplation.
Having attained the gift of Faith together with Hope and Charity, that Faith must be increased so that Hope and Charity might, also, increase unto perfection. These virtues must be increased to avoid loosing them. A sin, especially against Faith, like heresy, is more than enough to lose all of these virtues. We are left nothing than condemnation.
How do we increase our Faith? ‘Put on your apron and wait on the master.’ Put on your apron means evangelise. And ‘wait on the master, ‘ means teach others the way to attain the gift of Faith from God through repentance. This is the way to increase your Faith; teach others the way of repentance. This is serving Christ at table because, according to St. Thomas of Aquinas, you are feeding Christ with souls at table.
6. Today.
The visible signs of the presence of Faith are the four visible signs mentioned in the Nicene Creed or the 15 expanded Marks of the Church mentioned by St. Robert Bellarmine.
The invisible signs of Faith are the very virtue of Faith, Hope and Charity. Faith, itself, is invisible. But mystical theology had given us some visible signs of the presence of Faith. These visible signs are not the descriptions of Faith. But they enable us to discern if there is Faith. Rev. Fr. Garrigou Lagrange had given us many discernible signs by which we can suspect the presence of Faith in ourselves or in others.
So, the easiest signs to detect Faith are the four visible signs found in the Nicene Creed or the 15 Marks mentioned by St. Robert Bellarmine. The more difficult signs but discernible signs would be the workings of the three theological virtues.
The state of the priesthood of most priesst, bishops, cardinals and even the present Pope is that they do not have either the four visible signs enumerated in the Nicene Creed nor the workings of the three theological virtues. They, very evidently, do not have Faith; thus there is nothing to increase.
Christ, Himself, had prophesied these days thus; when the son of man comes, think you, will He find Faith on earth? Christ, Himself, said so; that there will be no Faith these days. And anyone can check on this. The instruments for checking are easily available.
We have shown in the writings of Cardinal Ratzinger that since 1980, he had already noticed this state of affairs. It was clearly shown by Pope Francis during the 2015 Bishop’s Synod. And it is getting worse every day specially after ‘Amoris Laetitia,’ where we see a total break away from the Catholic Church by many Cardinals and bishops led by Pope Francis. A great apostasy is going on and the faithful is in total confusion.
‘Increase my Faith.’ Pope Francis cannot pray this because he has nothing to increase.
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