The gift of temporary faith

In my theological studies, I have become well-acquainted with St. Anselm’s motto, “Faith Seeking Understanding,” which the University of Notre Dame Department of Theology adopted as its t-shirt logo. I consider it a beautiful invitation to questioning in the security of the truth. One of the spurs to my own quest of faith seeking understanding was the book “Introduction to Christianity” by Joseph Ratzinger – Pope Emeritus Bendict XVI – which I am sure comes as no surprise to any dear readers who have read half of the book by now solely through quotations in my articles. Ratzinger’s first chapter is dedicated to the interplay of doubt and belief that takes place in every human heart, and he describes well the way solid faith must acknowledge and embrace doubt as an element of life until death. I had forgotten, until lately, that not everyone is so comfortable with the place of doubt in the life of faith.

A friend of mine recently raised several concerns about his doubts, and he was deeply troubled by the questions that plagued him. He was under the impression that not everyone struggles so much to believe, so he doubted the strength of his faith; but he argued that, surely, an honest faith must contend with a regular element of self-interrogation. Somewhere along the line in our lives, he and I must have formed different ideas of what faith is because he stepped very gingerly in the realm of doubt – whereas I was very comfortable with saying, “Of course there is doubt; that’s what makes it faith and not knowledge.”

Faith is one of the three theological virtues, and Thomas Aquinas teaches that of these three—faith, hope, and love—only love will remain in heaven. To put it more starkly: there is no faith in heaven. There is no hope in heaven. And that is wonderful! There is no faith or hope in heaven because both of those virtues are anticipatory. Faith adheres to belief in something that cannot be entirely proven or known beyond a shadow of a doubt, and hope looks forward to something greater that is yet to come. In heaven, we believe that we will see God. We will know him, and we will share life with him. There will be nothing greater to anticipate, and we will not have faith in God because we will have immediate knowledge of God. How stellar!

Faith is a gift for which we must pray, but it is blessedly temporary; and thanks be to God. It is true that at least a shade of doubt is intrinsic to faith simply by its incomplete nature. Such doubt is no cause for fear or anxiety; rather, I always consider it a great opportunity. It is in our many questions that we come to a deeper understanding of who God is and how he relates to us. Let us pray for faith and not fear doubt. God will give us the measure we need. And when the time comes, we will eagerly abandon faith for the sake of sure, eternal knowledge of our Lord.