Understanding Faith: A Personal Relationship with God

Faith: A Personal Relationship with God

Faith is an experience of a personal relationship with God, who takes the initiative.

Faith is an experience of a personal relationship with God based on trust and surrender. It is an experience that is lived, not only thought, and it involves the whole person. Faith is only possible if the person is associated personally with God. The initiative belongs to God, who calls through multiple modes. When the person answers "yes" to this call, the journey of faith begins.

The first fruit of this response is conversion. When a believer freely decides to step into faith, they are not moved by logical proofs, but by trusting and relying on the support of God, who inspires and sustains their experience. Thus begins a path not without difficulties and failures, because faith is not a tranquilizer; it requires courage and strength. The test of the authenticity of faith is found in action, work, and commitment.

Believing is Reasonable

Something is reasonable when we find many reasons for it, even if no single reason establishes its truth as strictly necessary. The human experience closest to the Christian faith is the experience of interpersonal relationships. In the most vital and transcendent aspects of life, faith calls more than it provides rational demonstration. However, faith is not strictly demonstrable. Wanting to provide a rational necessity for faith in God would kill the root character of an interpersonal encounter.

Ultimately, beyond all reason or consideration, there is personal choice and freedom, which is manifested in a faithful response to God's call. Where there is no "rational need," there is freedom. The Christian faith will always remain a mystery at the crossroads between the mystery of human freedom and the mystery of God's grace.

Christians Are Called to Overcome Evil and Pain

Evil and pain are the most disconcerting human experiences. Any proposal for the meaning of life must address this dimension. There are evils that arise from our status as natural beings, as nature has its own laws to which we are subject. Similarly, it is a natural law that the life cycle ends in death. However, there are other pains caused by the evil that sometimes lies within the human heart.

Jesus Experienced Pain and Suffering

Jesus fought against the evil caused by human injustice, cured sufferings of body and spirit, and experienced our own suffering. He also came to experience injustice in his own flesh. A wrongful conviction led him to the cross, where he shared with us a deeper human experience: death. In Jesus, we find a God who became man to share our own existence. After death comes the resurrection—Jesus' victory over evil and pain. Therefore, as Christians, every time we suffer, we are joined by the risen Jesus.