How does faith work?

Faith and reason are not incompatible, but complementary realities.

When we follow the clues that point us to the existence of God and gain the confidence to turn to him, we are taking the first steps toward establishing an unforgettable friendship that will provide us with great stability and serenity, since we will be able to rest confidently leaning on the one who never fails.

God seeks us out and speaks to us as friends, and expects us to respond to him with our friendship, believing in him, trying to understand what he tells us, and accepting without reservation what he proposes to us.

Faith is the response to God's invitation to communicate with him and to enjoy his company. Through faith, man submits his intelligence and his will completely to God, prestando asentimiento a lo que Dios ha revelación y decidiendo vivir de modo coherente con esas verdades.

But is this a reasonable position? is believing human? is a person in his right mind who submits his intelligence to what someone else tells him, or puts his decisions in the hands of someone else?

Faith is first and foremost a personal adherence to God, and at the same time and inseparably free assent to all the truth that God has revealed.

It is true that it would be vain and wrong to place such faith in a creature, but is the same true of God? The reality of things depends fundamentally on the answer to one question, which is the fundamental one: Does God exist or does he not exist? If it did not exist and was only an ideological construct, it would be meaningless. But what if it does exist?

Let's say that the option of giving this assent involves taking a risk, because it is not possible to intellectually control all reality. It requires an exercise of trust, something like that which would be required to jump into a swimming pool for a person who has never done it before. He sees other people who are there and enjoying the bath, but the first impression is that if he dives in he will go to the bottom and drown.

To lend assent of faith We cannot wait to find a mathematical demonstration of the existence of God or of each of the truths that he has revealed. It involves a risk, and therefore requires help that we have to receive from outside. Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him. Para dar una respuesta positiva a lo que Dios ha revelado es necesaria la gracia de Dios, que se adelanta y nos ayuda, junto con el auxilio interior del Espíritu Santo, que mueve el corazón, lo dirige a Dios, abre los ojos del espíritu y concede a todos gusto en aceptar y creer la verdad. Así lo enseña el Concilio Vaticano II (Dei Verbum, n.5) and the Catechism of the Catholic Church (n.153).

Trust in God

However it is contrary neither to man's freedom nor to his intelligence to place his trust in God and to accept the truths revealed by him. Ya en las relaciones humanas no es contrario a nuestra propia dignidad creer lo que otras personas nos dicen sobre ellas mismas y sobre sus intenciones, y prestar confianza a sus promesas (como, por ejemplo, cuando un hombre y una mujer se casan). Nos fiamos de nuestros padres cuando somos pequeños, nos fiamos de nuestros maestros y de lo que dicen los manuales. Nos fiamos de lo que leemos en la prensa, escuchamos en la radio o vemos en la televisión. No tenemos tiempo ni posibilidad de contrastar experimentalmente todo la información de vamos recibiendo. En la vida normal casi todo lo que sabemos es porque nos hemos fiado de alguien. Así que it is not contrary to our dignity to trust in God.

The reason for believing does not lie in the fact that the revealed truths appear to be true and intelligible in the light of our natural reason. We believe because of the authority of God himself who reveals, and who can neither deceive himself nor deceive us.

Also in real life, we need to contrast at least some data of what we are told and verify if they are plausible, although many times we cannot prove them. Science advances more by induction than by mathematically proven deduction.

For this reason, we also it is reasonable that we should wish to know more precisely and go deeper into what faith tells us. As St. Anselm pointed out, "faith is about understanding". It is proper to the Catholic faith that the believer desires to know better the one in whom he has placed his faith, and to understand better what has been revealed to him.Therefore, he should make every effort to come as close as possible to understanding the mysteries of revelation.

Faith and reason are not incompatible realities, but complementary. Properly conducted scientific research will never really be in opposition to faith, because profane realities and realities of faith have their origin in the same God.