Viewpoints
Faith
By +Oscar V. Cruz JCD
TO believe in oneself, to believe in relatives and friends, to believe in famous individuals and well-known characters—all these can be anything but faith as it is meant to be. Thus: Faith is virtue—a conviction, a disposition, a fervor—through which people believe in God and all that His Son Jesus Christ taught and revealed through the Sacred Scriptures in the light of the Holy Spirit. Complicated? No. Mysterious, yes! Confusing? No. Mystifying, yes. Thus it is that by faith, man commits and entrusts the present and future of his earthly life—assured of the love, providence and guidance of God. And thus it is that the faithful—persons having and living with faith—seek to know and to do the will of God as the supreme rule of life.
It is vain and futile for man to repose his belief in himself. The truth is that notwithstanding his intellectual attribution and volitional faculty, he does not even know what tomorrow brings, much less what the future holds for him. It is likewise pointless and foolish for him to anchor his belief on other men like himself. While it is true that he may reasonably believe and depend on the concern and benevolence of others, there is nevertheless the realistic saying that when the going goes tough, the tough ones get going. This is not meant to belittle the fidelity and ability of relatives, friends an/or neighbors. It is simply intended to forward and emphasize the truth that no one may not trust himself and/or others over and above God.
“God save me!” “God help me!” “God spare me!” These and similar ardent and urgent expression are heard loud and clear—as matter of course—when man feels helpless in a given fatal situation or in a mortal predicament. Truth to say, God is the first and last recourse of man. In the same way, when he feels futility or danger, man’s usual exclamation is “MA!”—“Nanay ko!”—who gave him birth, loved him much, took care of him. The truth nevertheless stands that it is God Who gave man his life and Who takes it away too in due time.
In the last analysis, it is faith in God that gives man his real security and genuine strength. If one has God in his side, who could bring him down? As everybody else like him feels weak and dependent by knowing his own uncertainly and vulnerability, it is not only rational but also realistic for man to believe primarily and trust God ultimately. This is why it is truly pitiful if not miserable for anyone who has no faith in God. In such a case, man has but himself. And this is not much—to say the least.
Finally, one thing is the virtue of faith and markedly different are blind fate, disastrous fatalism and/ or deterministic predestination. The true and living, the all knowing and all powerful God becomes sadly irrelevant in such downright irrational and insensitive tenets and recourses.
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