From knowing to believing

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

WE somehow can get that idea of how we can shift from simply knowing to what is more important, which is to believe, after considering that gospel episode about Christ meeting two men possessed by devils. (cfr. Mt 8,28-34)

The devils, upon meeting Christ, said: “What have we to do with thee, Jesus Son of God? Are thou come hither to torment us before the time?” To be sure, the devils knew who Christ was, and yet they could not bring themselves to believe in him. In fact, all they do is to disobey and go against God.

This is where we are reminded that we should not remain only in the level of knowing God. Of course, we have to know God as much as we can. In this regard, we cannot overemphasize the need to study as deeply and thoroughly as possible all that we can know about him.

But we have to see to it that we truly believe in God, giving our all to him, and not only our intelligence. While we have to know God as much as we can, we have to see to it that our knowledge filters down to our whole being to such an extent that we truly give our whole selves to him. That’s what believing is. We go from knowing to believing to loving and to serving.

When we believe we turn knowledge into life itself. And we also have to consider that in believing, while it depends on our human understanding about God and things in general, it actually depends first of all on that supernatural gift of faith which God himself gives us, especially through the sacraments. We should continually ask for this grace, nourish it by constant acts of faith, and let it bloom into deeds.

We have to always remember that given the fact that we are not meant to remain only in the natural level, relying simply on our human powers, but rather are meant to enter and share the supernatural life of God since we are his image and likeness, we have to be clear that we have to be guided by faith rather than simply by our own reasoning and our other human ways of knowing.

Faith is God sharing his knowledge with us. It is how we begin to share the life of God. And he gives it to us very willingly. It just depends on us on whether we receive it or not, and to respond to it or not.

Faith contains truths that go beyond the natural realities of our life. Thus, it has supernatural truths or mysteries which we have to learn to feel at home with. This means we have to learn not to stick to our natural reasoning alone, but to go beyond it.

To be sure, faith does not supplant our reasoning or intelligence. Rather, it makes full use of it, although its scope is far wider and deeper than what our intelligence can fully know and understand.

As the Catechism puts it, faith is first of all a gratuitous gift of God, it is grace. But it also requires the correspondence of our intelligence. It is also a human act. It asks us to do our best to understand it as much as we can. It seeks understanding.

We have to remember that since the reality that governs us transcends the natural order, our human faculty of intelligence and reasoning just cannot depend on the data provided by our senses and our own understanding of things.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com