Losing belief

Faith is an entirely free gift that God makes to man. We can lose this priceless gift, as St. Paul indicated to St. Timothy: "Wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting conscience, certain persons have made shipwreck of their faith."⁴⁴ 1 Tim 1:18-19 To live, grow and persevere in the faith until the end we must nourish it with the word of God; we must beg the Lord to increase our faith;⁴⁵ Cf. Mk 9:24; Lk 17:5; 22:32 it must be "working through charity," abounding in hope, and rooted in the faith of the Church.⁴⁶ Gal 5:6; Rom 15:13; cf. Jas 2:14-26

Faith makes us taste in advance the light of the beatific vision, the goal of our journey here below. Then we shall see God "face to face", "as he is".⁴⁷ 1 Cor 13:12; I Jn 3:2 So faith is already the beginning of eternal life: When we contemplate the blessings of faith even now, as if gazing at a reflection in a mirror, it is as if we already possessed the wonderful things which our faith assures us we shall one day enjoy.⁴⁸ St. Basil De Spiritu Sancto 15, 36: PG 32, 132PG — Patrologia Graeca (Migne); cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, STh II-II, 4, 1.

Now, however, "we walk by faith, not by sight";⁴⁹ 2 Cor 5:7. we perceive God as "in a mirror, dimly" and only "in part".⁵⁰ l Cor 13:12. Even though enlightened by him in whom it believes, faith is often lived in darkness and can be put to the test. the world we live in often seems very far from the one promised us by faith. Our experiences of evil and suffering, injustice and death, seem to contradict the Good News; they can shake our faith and become a temptation against it.

It is then we must turn to the witnesses of faith: to Abraham, who "in hope... believed against hope";⁵¹ Rom 4:18 to the Virgin Mary, who, in "her pilgrimage of faith", walked into the "night of faith"⁵² LG 58; John Paul II, RMat 18. in sharing the darkness of her son's suffering and death; and to so many others: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith."⁵³ Heb 12:1-2. Article 2

The first commandment requires us to nourish and protect our faith with prudence and vigilance, and to reject everything that is opposed to it. There are various ways of sinning against faith: Voluntary doubt about the faith disregards or refuses to hold as true what God has revealed and the Church proposes for belief. Involuntary doubt refers to hesitation in believing, difficulty in overcoming objections connected with the faith, or also anxiety aroused by its obscurity. If deliberately cultivated doubt can lead to spiritual blindness.

Incredulity is the neglect of revealed truth or the willful refusal to assent to it. "Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same; apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith; schism is the refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him."¹¹ CIC, can. 751: emphasis added.

Another difficulty, especially for those who sincerely want to pray, is dryness. Dryness belongs to contemplative prayer when the heart is separated from God, with no taste for thoughts, memories, and feelings, even spiritual ones. This is the moment of sheer faith clinging faithfully to Jesus in his agony and in his tomb. "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if dies, it bears much fruit."¹⁸ Jn 12:24. If dryness is due to the lack of roots, because the word has fallen on rocky soil, the battle requires conversion.¹⁹ Cf. Lk 8:6, 13.