How Faith Helps Mankind to Discover Its Roots

(Prof. Jose Vidamor Yu, Manila)

The profession of faith is by its very nature a free act. It is through faith that man experiences the newness of life. It is through faith that man’s vocation is also fully realized and accomplished. Faith helps perceive and realize the imperatives of the law of God through the free exercise of his own conscience. The Church, as a communitarian expression of faith fully discovers Her true nature and Her destiny through the profound expression of faith.

Faith Restores the Dignity of Man

The experience of faith is not only personal but it is recorded in the history of the community. Sin, whether personal and social is a product of man, yet man, through the help of the Holy Spirit has the power to overcome sin. It is faith that restores the dignity of man which was ruptured by the reality of sin. Eden was the place where man was created in “his own image and likeness.” (cf Gen 1:26). And “God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good.” However, it was also in that same place that the tragic reality of man’s fall transpired which constituted the essence of the darkness of sin. Though God was happy with what was accomplished, He has also to plan everything for man’s rescue from sin and ultimately his own salvation. It is faith that restores man’s primordial relationship with God who created him. Christ came into this world not to condemn but to save it. (cf John 3:18)

Faith Promotes Human Cultures

Human cultures are catalysts towards human progress and fulfillment. Culture in its “general sense indicates everything whereby man develops and perfects his many bodily and spiritual qualities.” (GS 53) Man develops and accomplishes his desires and aspirations within the context of culture. It is culture that helps man reach his destiny. Faith develops in man the sense of culture knowing his own heritage and cultural backgrounds. As the Gospel renews cultures wounded by error and sin, the Word of God likewise allows man to appreciate culture as well to be formed according to God’s Holy Will. In spite of the significant value culture may be to man and to the Church, the Church recalls to the mind of all that culture is to be subordinated to the integral perfection of the human person, to the good of the community and of the whole society. (GS 59)

As the Gospel is not identical with culture, the Church borrows several elements from culture to promote the Kingdom of God on earth. Paul VI says that the kingdom which the Gospel proclaims is lived by men who are profoundly linked to a culture, and the building up of the kingdom cannot avoid borrowing the elements of human culture or cultures. (EN 20) The Gospel acknowledges and affirms the positive elements of culture. Faith promotes human cultures and develops man through his cultural roots.