Vigils Reading

THE GIFT OF FAITH

By Catherine de Hueck Doherty

◊◊◊

What is faith? Some say they have lost it. Some hunger for the first taste.

Some are indifferent to whether they have it or not. Others fight against it, hate

it, and want to destroy it in others. What is faith? A Catholic can easily answer

from early catechetical instructions in childhood. Faith is a free gift from God,

given to a person at Baptism. A Catholic will say too that no one can really

acquire faith by his own efforts. He will repeat over and over again that it is

indeed a free gift from God.

Yes, faith is a free, loving gift of God to us. Faith is the cradle of love and of

hope. But this gift given to us at Baptism can grow, must grow, must be

incarnated into our lives, must become part of us, must become, like breathing,

an utterly integral part of us.

How can it become all these things? By prayer. God never refuses a prayer

for the deepening and growth in faith. Prayer is the food that will make faith

grow, strengthen it, root it with deep and lasting roots into human hearts. Faith

grows by living it out. Faith is a pilgrimage toward the Absolute. Faith gives

every Christian sandals and a pilgrim’s staff and bids him to arise and go in

search of him whom every Christian longs for – God.

Faith appears to be blind sometimes but in reality it sees very deeply. It

alone can walk in utter darkness. It alone can fold the wings of the intellect when

necessary and open them when it needs to. Chasms, abysses, steep mountains

present no problem or difficulty to faith. On the contrary, all of life – pains,

sorrows, joys symbolized by these chasms – becomes its food and its

nourishment. Faith grows until it leaves all darkness behind and walks like a

child bathed in the light of God’s love.

No one can keep or hide faith for himself alone. It will escape and extend

itself to others. Faith never walks alone, but always walks with love and hope.

Faith can be transmitted by words, but it is best communicated by actions. Faith

cries out to be lived, to be incarnated, incarnated in love. For love is a Person,

love is God, and faith is his gift to us. The hands of faith are filled with gifts for

those who embrace her. Gifts of peace, love, joy and strength. Gifts of courage

and laughter. Faith is a child who smiles at theologians and at human wisdom.

THE GOSPEL WITHOUT COMPROMISE , Catherine de Hueck Doherty (Ave Maria Press IN 1976) pp. 127-128.11 invites them to come and play with God.